The Horseheads Central School District athletic fields are no longer listed with the Department of Environmental Conservation as a hazardous waste disposal site.
But environmentalists question the testing, and the DEC's research. They say just because one investigation didn't unearth anything, it doesn't mean there's no potential danger.
Testing by a private company, Barton and Loguidice, came back negative for hazardous chemicals. Superintendent Ralph Marino, Jr. is relieved, but the president of Toxics Targeting, Walter Hang, has doubts.
There is clear documentation that pollution is here, Hang said.
That's according to a 1986 investigation by NUS Corporation.And these are cancer causing agents found in cigarette smoke that cause lung cancer, Hang said.
Hang said the concern is pollutants dumped near the fields decades ago in an adjacent nature area could have migrated over years.
Bart Putzig, the DEC engineer who worked with the school district, said there's no cause for concern.
We did not find that there was a consequential amount of waste so there's really nothing to clean up. It just didn't rise to a level where the state needed to take action on it, Putzig said in a phone interview.
We did comprehensive testing, we went well beyond just the satellite section,? Superintendent Marino said.
But Hang is convinced the work was not comprehensive enough and wants more testing, and ultimately, a complete clean-up of the area. But that might take some time. the matter is closed, Marino said.
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