Al Gore School Built on Toxic Site, $4 million Spent to Clean up Carson-Gore Academy of Environmental Sciences

by the Left Coast Rebel

No, the title here isn't an Onion-inspired gaffe.

Rather, it's an irony-saturated, legitimate news story far beyond even the fact that naming a public school after controversial leftist figures is preposterous in itself.

Recently moonbat-dominated Los Angeles spent $75 million dollars to construct a new 'academy' dedicated (in name) to Al Gore and radical environmentalist author Rachel Carson. Trouble is, the Carson-Gore Academy of Environmental Sciences sits squarely on contaminated soil.

Unreal:

(LA Times) Critics say the campus' location poses a long-term health risk to students and staff.

School district officials insist that the Arlington Heights property is clean and safe. And they've pledged to check vapor monitors and groundwater wells to make sure.

The $75.5-million Carson-Gore Academy of Environmental Sciences will open Sept. 13 for about 675 students. As he was with Bill Clinton (who has an L.A. middle school named after him), Gore is second on the ticket to Rachel Carson, the late author credited with helping launch the modern environmental movement.

"Renaming this terribly contaminated school after famous environmental advocates is an affront to the great work that these individuals have done to protect the public's health from harm," an environmental coalition wrote in a letter to the Los Angeles Unified School District. Making sure the school is safe "would be an even better way to honor their contribution to society."

Construction crews were working at the campus up to the Labor Day weekend, replacing toxic soil with clean fill. All told, workers removed dirt from two 3,800-square-foot plots to a depth of 45 feet, space enough to hold a four-story building. The soil had contained more than a dozen underground storage tanks serving light industrial businesses.

Additional contamination may have come from the underground tanks of an adjacent gas station. A barrier will stretch 45 feet down from ground level to limit future possible fuel leakage.

An oil well operates across the street, but officials said they've found no associated risks. Like many local campuses, this school also sits above an oil field, but no oil field-related methane has been detected.

Groundwater about 45 feet below the surface remains contaminated but also poses no risk, officials said.

Hah! Only in California....

Exit question - did these idiots know that the Al Gore school site was a toxic dump before construction began? Or was the 'inconvenient truth' covered up, thus endangering the health of students and costing an additional $4 million in cleanup?

Cross posted to LCR.