MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) – A Vermont bill could bring to an end the state’s multi-million dollar school PCB testing program that came in the wake of the discovery of contamination at the former Burlington High School.
Burlington High School closed in 2020, and local voters approved money to build a new campus set to open next year. Testing at other schools has also led to other costly remediation and student disruptions.
North Country Supervisory Union Superintendent Elaine Collins has been through the ups and downs of Vermont’s PCB testing program.
“I think I have mixed feelings about it,” Collins said. “How disruptive it is to education when PCBs are identified.”
The Newport school underwent over $8 million worth of testing and remediation, which at one point forced students to learn in tents. That testing led to the discovery of PCBs at four other locations in the supervisory union.
“And at the same time, if there is a true health impact on folks that are working in our schools and attending our schools, we certainly don’t want to turn a blind eye to that,” Collins said.
The state allocated more than $32 million in 2021 for testing and remediation, but the Legislature last year paused state funding for widespread PCB testing, prioritizing only schools with substantial contamination.
According to the Agency of Natural Resources, 328 schools required testing, 148 schools got tested, and over 60 schools had to navigate investigation, remediation, or removal. But the requirement for all schools to test by July 2027 is still in place.
House Education Committee Chair Rep. Peter Conlon, D-Cornwall, introduced a bill to take that requirement away. “We can’t have a huge unfunded mandate. So, instead, to just remove the mandate until such time as there’s money available to continue the testing if that’s the will of the Legislature,” Conlon said.
The bill says whatever leftover money there is should be paid out to schools that are in the middle of testing, need remediation, or require more testing, so they don’t have to shoulder the burden on their own.
There are also several lawsuits still ongoing against Monsanto, which manufactured PCBs. The state of Vermont filed one, as did the Burlington School District, and there’s also a multi-district lawsuit including dozens of Vermont schools.
The Vermont Health Department and the Agency of Natural Resources are both big parts of the PCB testing program. They both said they’re taking the time to review the impact of the bill on the testing program and the health of Vermonters.
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