Concerned about toxic pollutants falling on playgrounds, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will require Pennsylvania and other states to test the air quality near schools.
At least one local school is already being tested because of those pollution concerns: Locust Grove, a campus of Lancaster Mennonite School in East Lampeter Township.
But many other Lancaster County schools did not fare well in an investigative study reported by USA Today in December.
According to the newspaper's study, 37 local public and private schools are among the 5 percent of the nation's schools with the worst toxic pollutants in surrounding air.
The USA Today study used EPA's own computer model and listing of toxic materials local industries emit into the air to project where toxic pollution, including cancer-causing chemicals, land around local schools.
ON THE NET: Toxic air rankings for 316 schools in county
Still, the methodology has been criticized by environmental officials and others as inaccurate, incomplete and alarmist.
Last Friday, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection said it had tested four schools singled out in the USA Today study and did not find elevated levels of toxic chemicals.
Locust Grove is one of six additional schools around the state being tested now by DEP.
DEP Secretary John Hangar said Friday that the results "refute" USA Today's "snapshot" approach. "We simply have not found the levels of pollutants the newspaper's testing seemed to indicate."
However, EPA was concerned by the USA Today enough to take action this week. On Monday, EPA ordered a nationwide sampling of many schools across the nation "for better protection" of students.
New EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson announced that the agency will get state and local governments to come up with a priority list of schools near large industries and urban areas that should be scrutinized.
Air monitoring at some sites should begin within 30 days, according to an EPA spokeswoman.
Said Jackson, "I'm a mother first, and like all parents, I want to be sure my children are breathing healthy air at school. Questions have been raised about air quality around some U.S. schools, and those questions merit investigation."
Locust Grove, 2257 Old Philadelphia Pike, was singled out by USA Today as among 435 schools across the country where the air outside appeared to be worse than at an Ohio elementary school that was closed in 2005 because the EPA found levels of cancer-causing chemicals 50 times what the state considered acceptable.
Richard Thomas, Lancaster Mennonite School system superintendent, said last week that DEP officials told him that "They don't expect their monitoring to indicate a problem."
The USA Today study projected such chemicals as manganese, nickel, chromium, sulfuric acid and glycol ethers could be found outside the school.
According to USA Today, the chemicals were most likely coming from allowable emissions from surrounding industries, some more than 25 miles away: High Steel Structures, New Standard Corp. in York, Alumax Mill Products, PPL's Brunner Island coal-fired power plant in York County and R.R. Donnelley.
Calls were placed to all five companies this morning but only High responded by deadline.
John Sandy, a spokesman for The High Companies, said today that the USA Today report is less accurate because it is based on modeling and not actual sampling data. He said High tests air quality outside its facilities to ensure they comply with standards.
"The USA Today study was based on emission reports filed by 20,000 industrial sites in 2005," Sandy said in a statement. "High Steel Structures Inc. is among those who are required to file these reports and is listed as a contributor to the air quality at schools located near our facilities in the USA Today study.
"It is important to note that the USA Today study is based on air-quality modeling and not actual air quality sampling data collected at the schools," Sandy said.
"High routinely conducts air quality sampling at its industrial facilities to assure that we comply with all government air quality safety standards and to assure the health and safety of our workforce. Our facilities remain in compliance with all EPA regulations."
USA Today itself, on a question and answer forum about the study, says, "Most of the chemicals that might be outside your school are in small enough quantities that they likely pose no immediate threats."
The 37 local schools rated with having the worst surrounding air pollution are:
Brecht Elementary School; Buehrle Alternative Education School; Burrowes Elementary School; Columbia Junior-Senior High School; Conestoga Valley Middle School; Conestoga Valley Senior High School; Greenland Amish School; Gibbons School.
Hartman Station Amish School; Hildebrandt Learning Center, Park City Center; Lancaster Christian School; Lancaster County Academy; Lincoln Middle School; Locust Grove Mennonite School; Lynwood School; McCaskey High School Campus; Meadow Creek Parochial School; Meadow View School; Mill Creek School.
Muddy Run Amish School; Oak Grove Amish School; Our Lady of The Angels School; Owl Hill Learning Center; Park Elementary School; Pleasant View Amish School; Pleasant View School; Resurrection School; Ross Elementary School; St. Anne School.
Smoketown Amish School; Smoketown Elementary School; Stumptown Amish School; Susquehanna Waldorf School; Taylor Elementary School; Wickersham Elementary School; Witmer Amish School; Weavertown Mennonite School.
(Staff writer Tom Murse contributed to this report.)
Staff writer Ad Crable can be reached at acrable@LNPnews.com or 481-6029.