METHANE GAS DETECTED UNDER VALLEY CAMPUS OFFICIALS WORKING TO FIND WAY TO REMOVE EXPLOSIVE SUBSTANCE.

Byline: DANA BARTHOLOMEW Staff Writer

CHATSWORTH -- Environmental investigators have detected potentially explosive methane gas at Germain Street Elementary School.

Following years of tests by state toxic and Los Angeles school health investigators, monitoring wells will be dug this week to determine a methane-removal system by spring.

The nontoxic gas, detected at up to five times the level in which it becomes explosive, stems from ancient organic matter from the last ice age.

``It's a significant explosive hazard if allowed to accumulate in an enclosed space,'' said Jeanne Garcia, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Toxic Substances Control, which monitors schools. ``But there's already a system in place to make sure the student and faculty are safe.''

In the late 1980s, school environmental officials found enough methane at Germain to install two gas vents, a monitoring well and classroom sensors and alarms.

In 2000, state toxics investigators detected methane gas between two portable classrooms measuring 150,000 parts per million -- three times the limit at which methane becomes explosive. In 2004, investigators measured methane at 250,000 parts per million.

``High levels of methane were found in the substrate, or below ground, but nothing that would have been a hazard in any building,'' said Angelo Bellomo, director of Environmental Health and Safety for Los Angeles schools. ``It would be nice if we could suck it out of the ground, where it has accumulated for thousands of years.''

Tests indicate that the methane results from decaying natural organic matter from 31,000 years ago, when saber-toothed tigers chased sloths through southern redwoods.

But some geologists remained baffled by the biogenic burp -- the only known nonpetroleum methane to seep into Los Angeles schools -- emanating from the rocky alluvium spilled from nearby hills.

``A methane burp there is really weird,'' said Richard Squires, a geologist at California State University, Northridge. ``In all my years of doing geology in this area -- 33 years -- I've never heard of anything like that occurring in Chatsworth.''

On Saturday, the school district will begin digging seven monitoring wells around the campus's three portable classrooms. The 8-inch wells will be dug 25 feet deep.

Tests from the wells will help determine a methane-removal plan to be presented by the Los Angeles Unified School District this spring.

In a public meeting earlier this year, residents asked whether their children were safe and whether the portable buildings could be moved, Garcia said. Officials said no methane has been detected around the school north of Devonshire Street and east of De Soto Avenue.

Nonetheless, some neighbors remained concerned.

``The only thing that concerns me: If they've got methane going on there, what about me?'' said Elizabeth Sixsmith, 87, who bought her home in 1958 before Germain replaced the orange grove across the street. ``I may have methane gas under my house.''

dana.bartholomew(at)dailynews.com

[phone]

CAPTION(S):

map

Map:

Germain Street School