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http://www.timesdispatch.com/vametro/MGB2MHGD2NC.html
Methane study raises questions
Levels higher than reported
BY JASON WERMERS
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER May 23, 2001

An environmental consultant's review of Norrell and Whitcomb Court schools, and the former landfills near them, said methane has been present more recently and at higher levels than city and school officials have indicated.
The Richmond School Board hired KCI Technologies Inc. in April to conduct environmental site assessments of both schools and the nearby old city landfills. KCI issued a preliminary report this month and a final report is expected in June.
Residents of the neighborhoods surrounding Norrell and Whitcomb Court schools have long blamed their asthma and other respiratory ailments on the landfills, which were closed more than 20 years ago and are a source of methane gas.
In its preliminary report based on a review of more than 35 years' worth of documentation, KCI found:
the highest level of methane in either school was 8 percent of the level at which there is a potential for an explosion;
one well near Norrell sampled in April 2000 had a methane concentration at a potentially explosive level;
in 1990 SCS Engineers of Midlothian determined that the methane extraction system in place at the Fells Street landfill, near Norrell, was "not effective in controlling landfill gas migration."
SCS further determined in 1997 and 1998 that repairs to the extraction system were needed. KCI's preliminary report calls for the city to demonstrate "the manner in which these concerns have been or are being addressed."
Archie L. Harris, Richmond public schools' plant services director, said at a meeting of the Richmond branch of the NAACP in January that no methane had been detected in either school in more than 20 years.
Dean Starook, a civil engineering supervisor with the city's Department of Public Works, said at the same meeting that very low levels of methane had been detected in and around the landfills, but not enough to be dangerous.
In a telephone interview yesterday afternoon, Harris said that regardless of what he had said previously, his point was that both Norrell and Whitcomb Court are safe for administrators, teachers and children.
"When it says the highest level was 8 percent, that is showing you the school is still safe," Harris said. "There is no methane at a level that would be of concern to parents and students."
Superintendent Albert J. Williams agreed.
"That's why we have monitoring systems in there," Williams said. "Eight percent out of 100 [percent] is very negligible. That can be caused by simply turning on an air conditioner."
Starook could not be reached for comment yesterday.
School Board Chairman Mark E. Emblidge said he was not aware that a potentially explosive concentration of methane had been detected in a well near Norrell last year. He added that the only board members who have seen the preliminary report are those on the Facilities Committee, of which he is not a part.
Williams said he, too, was "not aware of being notified" of the potentially explosive methane concentration. He said that does not preclude the possibility that someone in the school system was notified.
Mixtures of methane and air where the methane content is between 5 percent and 14 percent can be explosive if an ignition source is present. In higher concentrations, the colorless, odorless gas can cause asphyxiation. Health experts have not conclusively determined whether long-term exposure to methane leads to health problems.
KCI's report notes that a December 2000 letter from Dr. Leonard Vance of Virginia Commonwealth University's Medical College of Virginia to the school system indicated that the "low levels of methane gas do not present a hazard to the students or faculty at Norrell School."
OUTRAGEOUS!!!