State to Check 2 Schools for Pollution From Plating Plants

Responding to pleas from worried parents, the state Department of Toxic Substances Control announced that it will begin testing Friday for toxic pollutants at two Bell Gardens schools next to chrome-plating plants.

A team of environmental experts will sample the soil, air and dust at the adjacent Suva Elementary and Suva Intermediate schools to gauge the levels of hexavalent chromium, a byproduct of chrome plating that can cause cancer in people after long-term exposure. It has also been found to trigger miscarriages and birth defects in laboratory animals.

The testing decision was prompted by parents afraid that pollution from the plants has poisoned school grounds.

The department, working with other environmental agencies, announced the decision at a community meeting Tuesday at Bell Gardens High School attended by about 200 parents and students.

Many parents expressed relief. Several recounted stories of death and illness that they attribute to the plants.

“Our cries did not fall on deaf ears,” said Joseph Perales, whose 14-year-old son, Alex, a former Suva Elementary student, died last fall of leukemia.

State officials said full test results are expected to be released in mid-October.

Suva Elementary was built in 1938, and classes at Suva Intermediate started in 1959. The two plants--Chrome Crankshaft and J & S Chrome on Florence Place behind the Montebello Unified School District campuses--began operations in the late 1950s and early 1960s. J & S closed in 1990.

Concern over the students’ health was sparked in 1988, when the South Coast Air Quality Management District found relatively high levels of hexavalent chromium in the air around the campuses. But district officials said the levels were not high enough to close the schools.

About the same time, the county Department of Health Services completed a survey that found that employees at the schools reported eight miscarriages between 1986 and 1988. But department officials said that was not a significantly higher rate of miscarriages than normal.

About 1992, Chrome Crankshaft redesigned its smokestacks to meet new clean-air requirements imposed by the AQMD. A spokesman for the company said: “There is no evidence to show that anything coming from the plant has anything to do with any illnesses at the schools.”

Toxic pollution at inner-city schools was the topic of a hearing Wednesday at Jordan High School in Watts. State Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles) called the meeting to investigate concerns at other area schools, in particular Jefferson Middle School, which is across the street from a federal Superfund toxic cleanup site in South-Central Los Angeles.