Residents warn of TCE contamination behind Arcadia schools; urge district to coordinate with DEC

Brendan Bolson, a resident and former Greece Central School District print-shop employee, told the Board of Education at its June meeting that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has released contamination results for the area behind the Long Island Cottage property adjacent to Greece Arcadia High School and Arcadia Middle School. Bolson said independent sampling found TCE in surface water and warned that the district’s track team runs directly through the affected area.

Why it matters: If contamination exists in areas where students and summer programs run, parents and the district need timely, coordinated testing and mitigation. Residents urged the board to work directly with DEC and to prevent student groups from using the affected path until testing and any remediation are completed.

In public comment, Bolson said, “The important thing to take back out of that information is that this was in surface water. It's nearly impossible for TCE to be in surface water and collected.” He added that his independent field work showed contamination farther inland than DEC maps indicated and described what he called a continuously flowing source in the woods.

Another resident, Ryan Murphy, told the board he had provided the district an updated live file of test results and reiterated the call for proactive testing before the school year begins. “Being proactive is gonna be a much, much better move than being reactive,” Murphy said. “The main goal is keeping the neighborhood and the residents, the children safe.”

Superintendent Smalley responded during the meeting, saying the district has taken steps and that it will determine a course of action once it receives information from its team. He told a resident who suggested negligence that the district had already taken steps and was “looking at it” and that the board would decide the proper course of action after receiving the district’s information.

No formal motion or vote on testing or closures was recorded at this meeting. Residents said their legal team and outside testing vendors are preparing options; district officials said the matter is under review and that they are coordinating internally and with external partners as appropriate.

The board did not set a public timeline for further action at the meeting. Residents urged the district to contact DEC directly and to keep families informed about any interim restrictions on field or track access.

The board’s next regular session will be July 15, when the district may have additional information to report.