Le Roy district announces 'no health impact' found in air, water and soil testing

In a statement posted on its Web site, Le Roy Central School District Superintendent Kim Cox announced today that tests conducted by a Rochester environmental firm found "no adverse health impacts from contaminants in the air, soil or water in or around our high school campus."

The air, soil and water testing was completed by Leader, and Cox said the district received an extensive report on Leader's findings.

Leader did recommend the stack of the school's boiler be made taller to eliminate noxious odors that were coming into the school.

"While not considered a health issue, the odor was an annoyance and so we proceeded with this project in March," Cox said. "Additional work will be done this summer so that this issue is effectively alleviated."

While not releasing the cost of the stack replacement nor the cost of the testing, Cox said the state has agreed to pay for 92 percent of the cost of both projects.

Cox said the state picking up most of the bill, "is truly good news for everyone in the district," adding, "We are hopeful that other incidental costs will also be supported by the state."

Key among the findings, Cox noted, is that no TCE was found on campus.

The entire testing issue arose as a result of a number of students at the school developing a movement disorder, often called tics. 

Many Le Roy residents speculated about a link between a Lehigh Valley train wreck in the 1970s that spilled massive amounts of TCE about a mile-and-a-half upstream from the school, and that possibly crushed stone was used from the quarry in the school's construction, or construction of ball fields.

Environmental researcher Bob Bowcock from California, sent to Le Roy by Erin Brockovich, brought to public light the apparent failure of the EPA to adequately clean up the Superfund site. Though, Bowcock was skeptical of any link between the TCE spill and the movement disorder and through his own research eventually concluded there was likely no tie.

The disorder was labeled "mysterious" by national and international media as dozens of camera crews from major networks and syndicated talk shows along with print and online media converged on Le Roy in February.

The tics turned out to be the result of pre-existing conditions for many students or conversion disorder for others, which is a response to stress and can be transmitted as a form of mass psychogenic illness.

"The best news of all is that our students are doing well," Cox said today.

The full report, more than 6,000 pages, can be downloaded in a series of eight files linked to the bottom of Cox's statement.