School Playground Safe, Official Assures Parents

The head of the Los Angeles school district’s environmental safety division has assured parents at a Cudahy elementary school that the bubbling in the school’s playground pavement is not a hazard to students.

William Panos told about 150 parents and students from Park Avenue Elementary School at a meeting Thursday night that tests conducted by the state Department of Toxic Substances Control show that the bubbles were caused by air trapped beneath the pavement.

But parents of 1,200 students at the school and Cudahy city officials are suspicious, considering the school district’s recent history with toxic contaminants on school sites, particularly at the Belmont Learning Center.

Park Avenue Elementary was built in 1968 on top of a landfill and was temporarily closed in 1989 when an oily ooze began to seep from the playground pavement.

In response, the school district installed a temporary polyurethane liner to keep the oily substance from seeping up and added a vapor recovery system to collect the fumes created by the petroleum ooze.

In January, after strange bubbles formed in the pavement, the playground was closed for two days until school officials investigated the problem and declared the playground safe.

But Cudahy Mayor George Perez said many parents don’t believe the district’s assurances. “People are not satisfied and I am one of those people,” he said.

Perez said parents are upset because the liner and the vapor recovery system were meant to be only a temporary solution.