Wetzel County superintendent, EPA spar over Paden City High School closure
The EPA and Wetzel County Schools have issued opposing statements Thursday, June 13, arguing over superintendent Porter's decision to unilaterally close the high school.
Paden City, W.Va. – On Tuesday, June 11, Wetzel County superintendent Cassandra Porter issued a statement announcing the closure of Paden City High School effective July 1, with students relocating to New Martinsville School or Magnolia High School for the 2024-25 school year.
Last year, the Wetzel County Board of Education considered a similar consolidation plan, but unanimously scrapped the idea after outrage from the community. Now, Porter, citing West Virginia law, has unilaterally closed Paden City High School without public input.
Per W.Va. Code §18-4-10(5), school superintendents have the authority to “close a school temporarily when conditions are detrimental to the health, safety or welfare of the pupils.” In her Tuesday letter, Porter said the decision came due to the high school’s location atop an Environmental Protection Agency-designated Superfund site, or a location polluted with hazardous material.
And she’s right. Paden City High School is located on a Superfund site due to tetrachloroethylene (PCE) contamination. PCE, associated with dry cleaning industries, textile operations, and metal degreasing activities, affects soil, groundwater, and air quality when improperly disposed. At low concentrations, PCE exposure can cause dizziness, headache, fatigue, confusion, nausea, or difficulty speaking. At high concentrations, kidney and liver damage can occur.
The problem with Porter’s use of the Superfund-designation to close the high school is that it is not new. City officials knew of PCE contamination in the water in 2010–likely linked to a 1990s dry cleaning operation who may have discharged their chemicals into the sewer system–and by 2020 Paden City installed “air-stripper” plants in their water filtration system to mitigate the problem.
In March 2022, the EPA officially added the area to their list of Superfund sites. Porter could have closed the school during the 2023-24 school year.
In April 2024–two years after the Superfund designation–The Intelligencer reported that the West Virginia Department of Education expressed concern for Paden City High School to Wetzel County Schools.
On Thursday, a back-and-forth began between the EPA and Wetzel County Schools.
Kelly Offner, a spokesperson for the EPA, said on Thursday that the agency’s internal data “shows no imminent health risks related to the Superfund Site for the students at the Paden City High School.” The statement went on to say no “unacceptable health risks caused by vapor intrusion from the Superfund site,” exists.
According to The Intelligencer, though, the EPA had stated significant weather changes, like drought or flooding, could lead to changes in the vapor intrusion levels.
Porter, responding to the press release, criticized the EPA’s use of the works “acceptable risk”. “The EPA might find that the possible added number or deaths, or added number of life-changing illnesses, is the acceptable range,” Porter wrote in a statement. “What is acceptable to the EPA is not acceptable to the school system.”
The decision to close the school saw swift condemnation from the community it served for over 70 years. According to The Intelligencer, at least 45 people arrived at the board office Wednesday to protest. The next day, Paden City High School was abruptly locked leaving some staff surprised. Porter said this came after “an issue with trespassing and an American Flag [sic] being lowered to ½ [sic] staff.”
Porter says the move is “temporary,” but no plan exists to significantly correct the conditions that led to closure in the first place. Superfund sites often sit for years without mitigation or clean-up occurring. And it would be hard for Porter to re-open the school without any progress made.
Just curious, what are your sources for this statement, "a 1990s dry cleaning operation that dumped chemicals into the sewer system."?