Kennedy High set to reopen after tests find no PCE vapor intrusion

West Contra Costa Unified School District officials said Thursday that new testing found no evidence of vapor intrusion at Kennedy High School and no evidence of immediate or long-term health concerns from the PCE found in soil gas beneath the campus, clearing the way for students and staff to return Tuesday.

The district closed the Richmond campus August 3 after preliminary underground vapor testing found tetrachloroethylene, known as PCE, in the soil beneath the school's east side. State officials have said the contamination is part of a broader underground plume in the area that also includes a former dry cleaner site about three-quarters of a mile away and the Miraflores housing development.

"Based on new data, the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) has notified us that there is no evidence of vapor intrusion at Kennedy High School, and there is no evidence of immediate or long-term health concerns from the PCE in soil gas," Superintendent Cheryl Cotton wrote in a letter to the Kennedy community Thursday. "Our colleagues at the DTSC have notified us that our results represent the best possible scenario."

Cotton said DTSC would provide the district with a letter Thursday formalizing the findings and has committed to continued monitoring of the site. The district said it is lifting entry restrictions on the Kennedy campus and will work with labor partners and staff to plan a transition back to the campus ahead of Tuesday's reopening.

According to Cotton, district officials met Thursday morning with DTSC, the district's third-party testing contractor, the City of Richmond, Contra Costa County Department of Public Health, and UCSF Medical Center. "All medical doctors and environmental scientists on this morning's call agreed that there should be no immediate or long-term health concerns based on these results," Cotton wrote.

The results, however, were not entirely clean. Cotton said detectable levels of PCE were found in indoor air samples from the Kennedy kitchen and the metal shop. "This is not related to vapor intrusion and could be from consumer products," she wrote, adding that the levels exceeded residential screening levels but fell well below limits for commercial or occupational spaces. The district is temporarily pausing use of both spaces "out of an abundance of caution" while it conducts further evaluation.

Dr. Gina Solomon, chief of occupational, environmental and climate medicine in the Department of Medicine at UCSF, told district families and staff at an August 5 community briefing that she would not be very worried about a student or staff member who had been on campus over the past year.

"I think that the school has jumped onto this issue quickly, and I think is avoiding most of the health risk. At least that is my best understanding at this time," Solomon said, adding that state regulatory levels for chemicals like PCE carry a wide safety margin. "Those long-term health effects usually need many years of exposure. It's not something that happens quickly."

The California Department of Toxic Substances Control has said it does not require a school closure over the PCE findings; the decision to close Kennedy was the district's own risk-informed call, officials have said.

District and site staff, along with DTSC, will hold a second Cross-Agency Town Hall on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the Richmond Auditorium, which will also be livestreamed on the WCCUSD YouTube channel, to answer community questions ahead of Tuesday's reopening.

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