Cudahy : Work to Begin on Sealing Sludge at School Grounds
Park Avenue Elementary School, which has been closed for almost a year because its playground is contaminated with petroleum waste, is scheduled to reopen Oct. 5, Los Angeles school officials said.
Work is expected to start next month to cover the playground with a new layer of asphalt and a polyethylene liner to prevent the buried sludge of petroleum chemical compounds and its vapors from rising to the surface. The work will cost an estimated $1 million.
The school, at 8020 Park Ave., was closed last July after parents and teachers raised concerns about health hazards associated with the tar-like sludge that appeared in tiny puddles on the surface of the asphalt playground.
Tests by an environmental engineering firm concluded that students would not face any health hazards as long as they did not have prolonged contact with the sludge. The school was built on an old city dump.
About 1,200 Park Avenue students are temporarily attending Teresa Hughes Elementary School and Clara Street Primary Center. Park Avenue operates on a year-round schedule.
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