Lead paint still a 'hazard' at playground after 15 years

Elliot Hall has always had a special history with children.

For over 70 years the building, known as Elliot City Hospital and then Elliot Community Hospital, welcomed babies into the world.

In 1973 Keene State College acquired the building, naming it Elliot Hall. In 1976 the Child Development Center (CDC) was developed to provide child care and instruction to children ages newborn to 6 from Keene and the surrounding communities. For nearly a quarter of a century, children have played on the CDC playground, adjacent to Elliot Hall's southeast corner, an open expanse of ground underneath 65 windows - not including the basement - housing faculty and staff offices.

At the start of this school year, KSC released a public notice regarding the playground's safety.

The July 27, 2007 press release stated, the college was "installing a fence around the back of Elliot Center, which boarders the Child Development Center (CDC) playground, as part of a multistep lead abatement program to address paint chips that have fallen from the trim of the historic building."

However, a seven-month investigation by The Equinox has found this past year was not the first time the college had to deal with exposed lead paint on Elliot Hall's exterior overlooking the CDC playground.

In 1993, staff concerns prompted an environmental analysis, concluding Elliot Hall, "poses a significant health hazard in its present condition," according to documents provided by a confidential source to The Equinox. That health hazard was the presence of non-intact lead-based paint on the building overlooking the CDC playground, according to a document from Aug. 30, 1993.

Flaking and non-intact lead paint has been judged a health hazard, particularly for infants, children and pregnant women since 1971 federal legislation that established lead-based paint and lead poisoning definitions, and addressed lead paint in government housing.

Government concerns about lead paint and children were reflected on Mar. 31, 2008 when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued new rules requiring contractors renovating buildings where children could be exposed to lead paint to take additional precautions. The new rules take effect in 2010.

According to the Aug. 30, 1993 document, "paint on the windows on the first, second and third floors is flaking and peeling and pieces of the paint were found in the garden and the sandbox areas of the CDC playground." In 2007 lead paint on Elliot Hall was noted as "significantly damaged with chalking and flaking observed in many locations," according to a July 23, 2007 memorandum from Laura Stockfisch of Covino Environmental Associates Inc. to Sylvie Rice, KSC Environmental, Health and Safety coordinator.

When asked where the majority of the paint chips fell in 1993, Physical Plant Director Frank Mazzola said, "I can't say." He said he could speculate it was probably by the "sunroom" windows because that was where the college focused its "corrective energies at the time."

Paint chips found in 2007

Despite initial efforts to correct the situation in 1993 and 1994, in spring 2007 "a concerned parent noticed that paint chips had fallen from Elliot Center onto the ground between the building and surrounding shrubs," according to the July 27, 2007 press release. Following the discovery Covino was retained "to determine whether there was lead in the paint," and analytical results of the paint chip samples contained between 8.53 and 16.17 percent lead by weight, according to the press release.

The Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act of 1992 defined lead-based paint as "paint or other surface coatings that contain lead in excess of 1.0 milligrams per centimeter squared or 0.5 percent by weight."

Jay Kahn, vice president for Finance and Planning, said, "We don't know if the areas that were treated in '93 are the source of today. I don't know if you can make that determination."

According to the Aug. 30, 1993 report, the "recommended minimum mitigation is to scrape and paint all non-intact leaded exterior components that overlook the CDC playground." Four months later, in December 1993, workers from MARCOR Environmental Inc. performed a lead abatement and encapsulation on Elliot Hall, according to a December 1993 report obtained by The Equinox in September 2007.

According to a Dec. 23, 1993 purchase order, the "removal of lead paint" was to be performed on 58 windows, an exterior door, an entryway and "upper trim and pillars on the CDC side of Ellt. (Elliot) Hall." All exposed areas were to be primed and sealed, according to the document. According to the invoice from MARCOR dated Jan. 13, 1994, all the listed work was completed costing the college $12,275.

Additionally, the college paid Desmarais Environmental Inc., an environmental consulting firm of Barrington, N.H., $322 for project monitoring and an air sample analysis on the CDC playground, and $140 to determine the presence of lead paint on Elliot Hall, according to invoices dated Sept. 13 and Dec. 31, 1993.

Both Kahn and Mazzola said they "don't know" the total cost of the work done in 1993 related to lead paint on Elliot Hall.

"It was a long time ago," said Mazzola.

Mazzola said the area the college was most concerned about in 1993 was Elliot Hall's southernmost wing underneath the "sunrooms," which overlooks the CDC playground.

"So that is where we chose to replace all the windows in that area in that 1993, 1994 time period," he said. "We thought that was where the greater risk resided, and that was the appropriate action at the time."

Below the sunrooms is the CDC playground.

In a Feb. 3, 1994 letter to Vicki Farer, then KSC Health and Safety coordinator, Michael Sweet, an industrial hygienist for Desmarais Environmental Inc., wrote, "The scope of work included scraping all the non-intact lead-based paint on the exterior window components and wood trim and then encapsulating the woodwork with either a paint or varnish."

Besides the removal of windows, "some element of encapsulation - removal of loose material of the paint - on the rest of the windows" was performed, and "we performed repair encapsulation of the yellow trim," said Mazzola.

A Dec. 13, 1993 memorandum from Mazzola, distributed to various college officials including Kahn, former CDC Director Caro Dellenbaugh and Farer stated "a specially licensed contractor would be removing lead contaminated paint from the outside surfaces of the windows and frames form (sic) the south facing sunrooms on the second and third floors of Elliot Hall. (The wood frame windows on the first floor have been replaced.)"

The work was scheduled over a four-week period in December 1993 and January 1994, according to the memo, which stated the "decision to expeditiously undertake this work" was influenced by the proximity of the windows to the CDC playground, which had chipping and peeling paint on them and their frames.

In 1978 the residential use of lead-based paint was banned by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Thirty years later many older buildings nationwide still have lead paint on interior and exterior surfaces. Children under the age of six are most vulnerable to lead poisoning, which results from a child inhaling lead dust or eating lead-based paint chips.

According to a May 2, 2008 New York Times article, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently proposed new limits for lead contamination in the air for the first time in 30 years.

Regarding the college's approach to the lead paint exposure in 1993, Mazzola said the college chose "to manage the material in place through encapsulation" because it "was the most prudent path for us to take."

"There often are many solutions to remediating a hazardous material problem short of complete removal and replacement of a system," he said. "It was an appropriate one and a safe one."

Sylvie Rice, KSC's environmental, health and safety officer who came to the college in 2006, said encapsulation was one option that was always available, but the problem with encapsulation was it had to be kept up.

Mazzola said, "It's effective for only so long until the paint no longer wants to stick to the wood, and at that point a more prominent solution such as replacement is necessary."

As for whether the college would have spent less money if a lead abatement was performed instead of encapsulation in 1993, Kahn said, "The college followed an appropriate procedure in 1993. That is all I have to say about that."

In the Feb. 3, 1994 letter to Vicki Farer, former KSC health and safety officer, Michael Sweet, an industrial hygienist, wrote, "The method of scraping and encapsulating is a short-term solution to prevent any paint from failing down onto the CDC playground."

"The long-term solution was to maintain the encapsulating paint layer, but I guess we found out that 15 years was about the extent that that would be maintainable," said Mazzola, whose three daughters attended the CDC.

This summer the college will be performing a lead abatement on the section of Elliot Hall overlooking the CDC playground. Rice said 65 windows will be removed and replaced including the painted woodwork around them, the yellow trim will either be removed or metal break put over it, and the columns will be fixed.

"We're hoping to get it started in June at the latest, maybe even in May, but we have to put it all together," she said.

On April 29, 2008 Rice said the project was just going out to bid, and the "estimates haven't come in yet."

The 1993 lead remediation

According to the December 1993 report, employees of MARCOR, which provides environmental contracting services, began preparing the exterior of Elliot Hall for the lead remediation on Dec. 21, 1993. That same day the workers left the site after two and a half hours because of the weather. "It is raining hard and the wind is blowing at 15-20 mph as a minimum. All lead work will be postponed today and will start tomorrow, weather permitting," according to project notes signed by Sweet.

Weather reports from Dec. 21 through Dec. 31, 1993 show wind gusts between 10 to 25 miles per hour, scattered flurries and temperatures ranging from zero to the upper 40s. There was rain the morning of Dec. 21 and at least four inches of snow the night of Dec. 29 to the morning of Dec. 30.

On Dec. 27, 1993, workers began to scrape the woodwork, according to a Feb. 3, 1994 letter from Sweet to Farer.

According to Dec. 29, 1993 project notes, workers were "gently scraping" the upper façade on the west side of Elliot Hall, which was covered with copper with non-intact paint over the metal. In addition, the lower windows on the south side had been encapsulated, according to the project notes, signed by Sweet.

According to the notes, MARCOR had chosen to use polyurethane as an encapsulant. Sweet wrote, "The polyurethane will take some time to dry, but it should provide a durable coat of protection until the spring."

KSC was on winter break during the time the work was being done in December, and according to a memorandum from Farer to Steve Bernard at MARCOR, the children were to return to the CDC on Jan. 17, 1994.

In the spring of 1994 the woodwork was painted, said Mazzola. He said between the summer of 1994 and 2007 the trim had been repainted on two occasions. Mazzola said the college planned to maintain the encapsulated paint "until it is no longer serving to keep lead exposure minimized, and I think we're at that point now."

Mazzola said he did not know how much it had cost the college to maintain the encapsulated paint because the information was "not broken out in that kind of detail."

"Certainly to have maintained it through encapsulation for 14 years was likely less than the cost of replacement then or now," he said.

Interior of CDC also tested

In 1992 Congress passed the Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reducation Act. One of the legislation's purposes was "to encourage effective action to prevent childhood lead poisoning by establishing a workable framework for lead-based paint hazard evaluation and reduction."

According to the KSC Web page for Environmental, Health and Safety, the program complies with University System of New Hampshire policy and state and federal regulations.

Results of a Right-To-Know request to Kahn, Mazzola and Rice included the Aug. 30, 1993 report and another report dated Sept. 29, 1993. Those two reports plus the December 1993 report were each prepared by Desmarais.

According to the Aug. 30, 1993 report, "all painted exterior surfaces that overlook the CDC playground were tested to see if they contained lead paint."

Besides the exterior of Elliot Hall being tested for lead paint, the interior of the CDC, located in the building's basement, was also tested, according to the Sept. 29, 1993. The report said the three areas Desmarais inspect were in "good condition, with the exception of the original style windows in some of the rooms in the preschool area." According to the July 27, 2007 press release, "Major renovations of the interior spaces of the CDC were completed in 2005 and 2006, effectively eliminating any potential lead exposure in the inside areas."

Dellenbaugh, who was the CDC director from 1991 to 1996, said she remembered talking to Mazzola about when the windows on the second floor of Elliot Hall were going to be replaced, and that paint was peeling off the windows at the time.

"I probably suggested testing the soil," she said.

Dellenbaugh said she had dealt with lead paint in a child care facility before coming to KSC. Her experience as director of the Child Study Center at Pine Manor College in Chestnut Hill, Mass. resulted in windows of the carriage house where the facility was, being replaced, notifying parents, and strongly encouraging them to have their children tested for lead poisoning, she said.

Mazzola said there may have been discussion about the windows, but "we didn't look seriously into it."

"I don't see any record of it, but I seem to recall that the [CDC] director at the time came to see me, and she said you know lead is in old buildings, and we're in any old building, and should we look to see what kind of risk we have?" said Mazzola, who came in KSC in January 1993.

Among the reports The Equinox located was a memorandum dated December 20, 1993 from Rose Kundanis, a journalism professor and CDC parent, to Farer. In the memo, which was confirming a phone conversation about the lead paint work on Elliot Hall, Kundanis wrote, "While I am glad that your office sees this work as pro-active, I must say the way this process has begun has been upsetting to me. I found out from the work men. I received no written notification of the work or the problem."

In a fall 2007 interview, Kundanis said, "I think for me it was a procedural issue, and I was concerned about my daughter because of the lead situation, and my daughter spent some time there. I think we had her tested - I'm pretty sure we did - and that she was fine."

Kundanis said her daughter was in elementary school at the time of the 1993 lead remediation.