EPA Comments on West Ishpeming School

Now for one final update, at least for now, to a story we’ve been following for the last week or so.

The Environmental Protection Agency says it actually hasn’t had much involvement in the West Ishpeming School coming down.

The EPA regional office that covers the U.P. is in Chicago.

Staff there have declined our request for a phone interview.

However, they did say they could only get involved with the asbestos issues if the school were currently being used as a school.

Because it wasn’t, they say they referred residents to a State of Michigan asbestos specialist.

They also say they contacted the Traverse City environmental consultant working on the project about PCB contamination in the old light fixtures.

The EPA says it informed the contractor the light fixtures had to be separated from the rest of the debris, and then disposed of separately.

Agency officials say as far as they know, the contractor is indeed doing that.