Methane leak not a threat

Andrew Edwards

A methane leak detected at Kettler Elementary school poses no danger

to students and staff, district officials told parents.

On Monday, tests at the campus administered by the Huntington

Beach City School District showed no trace of methane in any school

buildings or at surface levels. The findings were consistent with

previous tests, which found the gas leak below the surface.

“We confirmed that there was nothing,” said Duncan Lee, an

associate engineer in the city’s Public Works Department, which

helped oversee the test.

The tests were exhaustive, Lee said.

“We went to every room, every electrical panel, every sink We went

through everything,” he said.

The district conducted the tests on Monday following a community

meeting last week and one parent’s claim that the methane detected

below the surface was leaking above ground.

Lee said he was not concerned about the parent’s findings, adding

that Monday’s tests confirmed the area near portable No. 28 was clear

of methane.

“We tested there extensively,” he said. “There’s nothing there.”

The community meeting was called after announcements that tests

conducted in November and January discovered methane five feet under

the Kettler campus. Official tests have not discovered methane at the

surface or in any classrooms. In 1999, the colorless and odorless gas

was found at Edison Community Park, which is next to the school.

In order to find out if any methane ever makes its way into a

classroom, methane detectors will be installed throughout the school,

said David Perry, assistant superintendent for administrative

services.

“We’re going to move forward and we’re going to put monitors in

the classrooms,” Perry said.

Methane gas is not toxic, but can pose the risk of an explosion at

high enough levels. The gas can not ignite underground, said

Huntington Beach Fire Marshall Eric Engberg.

A concentration of about 160,000 parts per million was found in

the soil at Kettler, said Houshang Dezfulian, a soil engineer with

the Environ Corporation.

The lowest concentration that can create an explosion is about

50,000 parts per million.

Dezfulian said the levels are not worrisome unless the gas seeps

above ground.

“If these concentrations get into the room or the building, then I

would definitely be concerned,” he said.

A possible source of the gas is an old landfill that lies under

the park, the Cannery Street Refuse Disposal Station. It has not yet

been determined whether the dump is the source of the gas.

“At this time, the immediate culprit is the landfill, but at this

time we don’t know if there are additional sources as well,”

Dezfulian said.