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Toxic Town: Contamination in Somerville Schools

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• A sample from the attic above the elementary school gymnasium contained the highest concentration of dioxin, exceeding levels at the World Trade Center site. Dioxin is a known human carcinogen used in the 1960s and 1970s in the defoliant Agent Orange and is linked to various developmental problems, according to the EPA.

• All samples contained polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, which is found in heavy-duty pesticides used to preserve wood and classified by the EPA as a probable human carcinogen linked to various cancers.

Though it is not included in the report, Donnelly has advised Camarillo to remediate the attics in all the school buildings this summer, then conduct more testing. He recommends "a detailed analysis and qualitative assessment of the health threat."

But it remains unknown whether Camarillo will follow Donnelly's advice.

Not surprisingly, both sides in the pending litigation have worked to spin the A&M results in ways that bolster their cases.

Jared Woodfill, the plaintiff attorney, says the A&M report confirms his own findings, which showed levels of several known carcinogens thousands of times higher than concentrations deemed acceptable by the EPA. He warns that the combination of chemicals found inside the schools increases their toxicity.

Koppers Inc., meanwhile, has waged an aggressive public-relations campaign to portray the A&M report in a positive light. And Camarillo has proven very willing to work with Koppers in this effort.

On February 26, four days after the report was finalized, Camarillo held a press conference inside his offices. A couple dozen people attended, including local news media and several Somerville residents.

The Houston Press was not invited despite repeated requests to receive any and all information regarding the A&M study as soon as it was released.

More surprisingly, Donnelly and his colleagues at A&M also were not invited.

"We did not attend the press conference," Donnelly wrote the Houston Press in a recent e-mail. "Although we would have been happy to participate, we were not invited & did not even know about it!"

Camarillo did, however, invite Philip Goad, a toxicologist hired by Koppers as an expert witness in the litigation.

According to attendees, at the press conference Goad did answer questions from reporters, offering his own belief that the schools required no remediation.

Woodfill suspects that Camarillo provided Koppers the A&M report before releasing copies to the public. Matthew Doherty, a media consultant hired by Koppers specifically to handle inquiries related to the Somerville facility, denies this.

It took a public information request filed by a local TV reporter from KBTX in Bryan to pry the report away from the school district.

Camarillo finally released it to the public on March 7. That same day, Koppers launched an elaborate Web site, www.somervillefacts.com.

Koppers also bought a full-page advertisement in the local newspaper timed to run the same day as the story on the A&M report. The ad read: "...All of Texas A&M's dust samples, even the samples from the attics, are below health-based guidelines established for indoor living space. These guidelines were developed by the World Trade Center Chemicals of Potential Concern Committee...These are all positive developments for the people of ­Somerville."

Donnelly says he was confused by Camarillo's actions.

"Why he didn't release it, I don't know," Donnelly says. "I felt like it was important to the parents and everyone interested that the information get to the public. I wish that he had released it more quickly. I don't understand why he didn't."

James Dahlgren, a nationally known toxicologist and professor at UCLA School of Medicine hired by the plaintiff attorneys, calls the A&M report inadequate but adds that its results are anything but ­reassuring.

"They found elevated levels of arsenic, dioxin and PAHs in a school," says Dahlgren. "Tell me you wouldn't be freaked out by that finding alone."

Dahlgren opines that the superintendent is acting like someone who is concerned more about his own career than the safety of students and employees.

"The poor superintendent of schools is in a real box and he can't be objective," Dahlgren says. "I certainly wouldn't want to put my life in his hands at this point, because he loses his job if he recommends that the schools be closed."

During his interview last fall with the Houston Press, Camarillo said he didn't know if the lawsuits against the owners of the wood-treatment plant were legitimate. Last Monday, while driving his pickup truck outside the elementary school, he told a Houston Press reporter he now believes the studies showing contamination in the schools were "plaintiff-driven."

Camarillo declined to answer any other questions. He also did not respond to a list of questions submitted in a March 19 e-mail by the Houston Press, including whether the district plans any remediation or additional testing in the schools.

Camarillo instructed the Houston Press to contact his Houston-based attorney, Jeffrey Horner, a partner at Bracewell & Giuliani LLP, to answer these and other questions. But Horner's assistant said Camarillo did not authorize Horner to speak.

The Houston Press asked Camarillo in an e-mail to give Horner permission to speak, but Camarillo did not respond.

Stooped beneath the weight of a heavy backpack, Herbchelle Plumber last Monday was walking in the street in front of the Behavior Management Center on her way to class. The 11-year-old sixth grader at Somerville Junior High remembers having to spend a couple days in the little building "as punishment for acting up."

Plumber never wanted to go back. And it wasn't just because she didn't like the sting of being isolated from her ­classmates.

"The ceiling is all molded," she says. "It stinks so bad it makes you want to throw up."

Plumber's family is among the plaintiffs in the lawsuits against the current and former owners of the wood-treatment facility. Her great-grandfather worked at the plant for three decades. Many of her seven siblings suffer from learning disabilities and neurological disorders.

"Teachers say it's all a fib," she says. "They say people are just trying to get money out of the school."

But Plumber isn't so sure.

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