KINGSTON — The teetering timeline to build a new public high school in Kingston by 2006 may have just gained some stability Friday as two government organizations gave respective nods to further site development.
The Environmental Protection Agency released its Preliminary Assessment Site Investigation of the Nike Missile Site in Kingston July 16, which claimed only one analyte found in the study — manganese — exceeded an EPA standard. The report went on to note that manganese was not a result of the Nike Site but rather it occurs at naturally high levels in North Kitsap.
“We’re saying (in the study) there’s no significant contaminants,” EPA’s Community Involvement Coordinator Debra Sherbina said. “Based on the information we have, we’re not seeing significant problems with having the school built there.”
On the same day, Kitsap County approved the district’s Conditional Use Permit (CUP) application, which the North Kitsap School District needed in order to do logging and site development work during the late summer. The timing of that work is crucial to the schedule to open the school in two years’ time.
“We appreciate the efforts of the EPA and the efforts of the county to be aware of our timeline,” said NKSD Supt. Gene Medina. “We also appreciate (the EPA’s) efforts to assure the site is safe and healthy.”
The EPA’s study detected heightened levels of manganese in nearby wells, but the reports claims “… a source of manganese contamination was not detected at the site (and) … (it) is known to occur at naturally high levels in groundwater in the area.”
Methylene chloride, a volatile organic compound (VOC) that the World Health Organization has determined to cause cancer, was found during the school district’s private study of the Nike site by Seattle firm Kane Environmental. But Kane eventually determined the VOC was very likely the result of laboratory contamination, as it is used as a lab solvent. The EPA backed up the claim in its study, stating that “… methylene chloride is not a concern at the site based on PA/SI (preliminary assessment site investigation) sample results.”
The Department of Health will also now conduct a risk assessment based on the chemicals found at the Nike site in the coming months. In the meantime, EPA officials will hold a public meeting at 6:30 p.m. July 29 at North Kitsap Fire & Rescue headquarters.
Terry Benish of Indianola, the original petitioner of the EPA’s study in Kingston, said that he and a group of parents and neighbors of the site, are looking closely at the report, “so at that the meeting on (July) 29, the issues can be raised.”
Benish said he’s uncertain whether the report’s findings really mean the property is clean of hazardous materials left over from the Nike Site. He also said he feels that due to the district’s tight timeline, decisions may have been rushed. Benish also cited a letter from Congressman Jay Inslee (D-Bainbridge Island) in April that asked the EPA to speed up its report to assist the district’s time table.
“We were greatly concerned that the process appeared to have been circumvented by the district and the (school) board’s efforts to apply pressure through Congressman Inslee,” Benish said. “It put the construction timetable as the more important issue than the verification of the safety at the site.”
