FLORISSANT, Mo. — The US Army Corps of Engineers will conduct their own study on Jana Elementary School after an independent group's study found high levels of radioactive material inside and outside the school.
The group told a 5 On Your Side reporter they will be sampling and testing inside and outside of the school starting Monday.
The Boston Chemical Data Corp. study of Jana Elementary said the test results indicate high levels of radioactive lead, Polonium also known as Pb 210 found in the following areas:
- Inside the Jana Elementary school building (specifically on the cafeteria fan, in the boiler room, and in the school library)
- Jana Elementary school playground areas’ soil (specifically the kindergarten play area and near the basketball court area)
The other concern was the high level of thorium found, which is a radioactive element associated with the Manhattan Project at Coldwater Creek.
Their study was released on Oct. 10.
There is no word on if the Army Corps will collaborate on studying and testing the school with the Boston Corp. as of Thursday. Jana Elementary's PTA requests that the two groups work together for further sampling.
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Jana Elementary School's PTA released the following statement about the US Army Corps of Engineers testing the school:
After years of multiple requests for data sampling, The Army Corps of Engineers is suddenly willing to perform unmonitored testing at Jana Elementary.
We firmly believe that the Jana results obtained from Boston Chemical Data Corp (Oct. 2022) are conclusive and speak to the same results that were already found starting in 2018 by The Army Corp of Engineers/Department of Energy.
In the spirit of full transparency, we demand that The Army Corps of Engineers perform split sampling and work in collaboration with Boston Chemical Data Corp/Dr. Marco Kaltofen for any further sampling of the Jana Elementary School property.
Students will move to virtual learning on Monday, Oct. 24 after the test results. School officials will begin redistricting students for the second semester of the 2022-23 school year.
