Mercury vapors are seeping out of N.J. schools floor. $1M plan will fix it, if voters OK it. – NJ.com

A $1 million bond referendum is on the ballot again in November after residents in a small Gloucester County town defeated it in the spring.

The proposal in South Harrison seeks to fund the replacement and remediation of flooring that is emitting toxic mercury vapors in the one-school town.

The all-purpose room in South Harrison Elementary School has flooring made with phenol mercuric acetate (PMA). The substance, used to seal a rubbery surface to flooring in gyms and other school rooms, can breakdown over time and release fumes that are odorless but toxic.

Superintendent Jim Lavender, who also oversees the nearby Kingsway Regional District, said he and other school officials hope a larger turnout in the general election will approve the proposal.

We did it in March and it failed, Lavender said Thursday. The voter turnout was 15%, maybe. So the thinking was, taking advantage of a general election were going to have a higher turnout. The board believes were going to have a truer representation of how the voters feel about this project.

If approved, the measure would add $62 to the residential property tax bill of $3,489.67 for the typical homeowner.

Lavender said the cost for replacing just under 5,000 square-feet of flooring could be less than $1 million if concrete under the floor is not also contaminated with PMA. He said any savings would be credited back to the bond amount. The superintendent said the district also qualifies for a rebate of up to 40% of the bond repayment from the state.

Lavender said the gym in the elementary school has been closed for more than a year after environmental testing showed mercury vapors in the room exceeded environmental standards of .8 micrograms per cubic unit of air.

The floors can stay in use by ventilating the rooms with fresh air and keeping temperatures between 68 to 72 degrees. The warmer the room is, the more vapors that are likely to be emitted. Students in the district returned to in-person classes on an alternating, cohort schedule for the upper and lower elementary school.

South Harrison is not the only school in the state, or nation, facing this problem. This type of flooring was widely installed until the early 2000s as an alternative to traditional wood floors for gyms and tile floors for cafeterias and all-purpose rooms which may also serve as auditoriums.

Washington Township, Gloucester County found it in flooring in eight of the townships 11 schools. Only one of the schools, Whitman Elementary, had levels that exceeded safe limits.

The remediation efforts in Washington Township were estimated at $3.2 million, officials there said. But an engineer the district hired to study the problem said she thinks it extends far beyond Washington Township.

This is not just a Washington Township problem, this is not just a state problem. This is a national problem, Annina Hogan said.

A bond referendum was passed in Deptford, Gloucester County in January that included funding to replace contaminated gym floors in three elementary schools.

The New Jersey Education Association warned its members last year that 11 school unions have sought help with the issue and that it suspects there are more mercury-laced floors out there.

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Bill Duhart may be reached at bduhart@njadvancemedia.com.

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Mercury vapors are seeping out of N.J. schools floor. $1M plan will fix it, if voters OK it. - NJ.com