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GREENWICH, Conn. With school starting Tuesday, all fields at Greenwich High School are open again after several rounds of environmental testing, Greenwich Public Schools announced Friday.
Artificial turf on fields 3, 4, 6 and 7 had to be cut this summer to bore holes for the tests. The turf has been repaired, and the fields are safe for use, the district said.
Some testing remains, including planning the environmental cleanup, the district said.
Contamination was found in July 2011, when workers excavating parking lots for the schools auditorium project, known as MISA, discovered soil that was darker than other dirt. Immediate environmental tests began. Low levels of lead, arsenic, barium, volatile organic compounds, PCBs and petroleum hydrocarbons were found.
The exact source of the contamination is unclear, the district has said.
But samplings have shown that contamination is focused mainly in areas where fill material was imported when the school was built: beneath the west parking lot, as well as at fields 2, 3 and 4. The contamination did not have spread under the school buildings because they were built on top of bedrock, not fill.
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