United States Environmental Protection Agency
Region X
POLLUTION REPORT

Subject: 

The United States Environmental Protection Agency is responding at the request of the Salem Keizer School District, and has partnered with Oregon OSHA and the Oregon State Public Health to assess potential mercury exposure levels at seven schools in the Salem, Oregon school district.  The EPA will screen areas of anomalous mercury concentrations in suspected areas of schools and identify areas of mercury concentrations exceeding the site action level of (1ug/m3).

Oregon OSHA is collecting air samples and filter samples at the respective areas of mercury screening at the schools.  

The EPA and START-3 contractors initiated a Removal Site Evaluation on January 25, 2006.  The START-3 contractor conducted screening with the Lumex 915+ Mercury Vapor Spectrometer (Lumex) and the Jerome 431-X Mercury Vapor Analyzer (Jerome) at seven elementary schools in the Salem Keizer School District.  

The START-3 conducted the following tasks at the seven respective schools.  Concentrations were recorded at background using the Lumex at 100 and 200 cm levels at multiple locations inside the gymnasiums to establish normal breathing zone conditions.  These concentrations were used to compare to the near-floor concentrations.  The START-3 collected readings at a 10-20 foot grid spacing, and recorded the concentrations.  To establish reproduceability, the START-3 re-collected at least one transect to observe the variations.  

After conducting screening at all schools, and evaluating the data, the Removal Assessment resulting in the following conclusion.  All levels recorded at the respective schools resulted in data well below the EPA established levels of concern.  The START-3 did not find significant variation when screening the gym floors laterally or vertically.

No planned removal actions are planned at this time.

EPA's role is going to be limited to data collection and technical assistance.  EPA's product will include data tables and Graphic representations.  This information will be provided to the Oregon State Public Health for the purpose of drafting a final report.

EPA's OSC Marc Callaghan will attend a meeting in Salem on February 2, 2006 to discuss data sampling results with the Salem_Keizer School District staff, OR OSHA, and OR Dept of Health.