September 28, 2015 was a beautiful day for a groundbreaking ceremony in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. The sun was shining and a slight breeze cooled the attendees standing on the fairway of the former golf course which will soon be the new Phoenixville Area School District’s Early Learning Center and Elementary School. Students from several schools in the district were in attendance to take part in the ceremonial digging.
This future school, which will include an athletic complex, had many hurdles to overcome to get to the construction phase; one of which was the soil contamination caused by the historic use of the land as a golf course from the mid-1940s until 2014. It is well known within the environmental professional community that pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides were historically used to maintain a golf course’s appearance. These materials were the culprits of the soil impact that Environmental Standards delineated at each of the 11 greens and the storage shed located at the former golf course.
Soils were remediated via excavation and disposal over a 6-week period in the spring of 2015. Due to the proximity of the remediation to the local residences, an air monitoring program was implemented to evaluate potential airborne impact to the community. Environmental Standards completed post-excavation sampling at all the locations remediated and confirmed that the soils remaining were below the most stringent PA DEP soil standard. Phoenixville Area School District received approval of the project’s Act 2 Final report which gives them liability protection within the area remediated. Environmental Standards was pleased to work with the local municipalities, contractors, and of course the school district on this important project located in its own back yard.