“Oak Harbor School District is prepared to contract with a private firm to implement and execute a clean up of an illegally dumped pesticide uncovered recently on district property.The pesticide discovery is under Environmental Protection Agency investigation, which is to certify the presence of the pesticide on school district bus facilities grounds, more than 100 feet from the Oak Harbor High School stadium.Dursban, which was banned by the EPA in June 2000 because of its danger to human health, is to remain on store shelves through this year. Dr. Rick Schulte, school suprintendent, said Dursban has never been used by the school district and school officials did not know how some 650 pounds of it was dumped on school district property.We don’t use pesticide, Schulte said.There has been no student contact to the contaminated site, which is outside of the fenced area of the football field, Schulte said. In response to a federal investigation, a private firm has already been contacted, said Schulte. With EPA oversight, PBS Environmental will concentrate on several aspects of the clean-up operation, Schulte said.The first step will be to identify the extent of the contamination, meaning how far and how deep has the pesticide reached in the ground. Secondly, a contractor will be secured to excavate and remove the contaminated material, which will then be properly disposed. Lastly, the area will be filled with clean soil, Schulte said.Th EPA investigation began in January 2001 when the Department of Agriculture informed the EPA of a complaint filed by a former employee of the district’s maintenance department, said court documents filed in U.S. District Court. In the complaint, Michael Zuercher claimed that grounds maintenance employees of the school district had illegally dumped the pesticide in an area adjacent to a carport-type structure where buses are parked. District employees denied the claim when the EPA interviewed them, court documents state. A sampling taken by the Department of Agriculture on Jan. 9 tested positive for the chemical chlorpyrifos, an active ingredient of Dursban. The EPA then submitted to the court for a search warrant to excavate the site to confirm the presence of the pesticide through further testing.The warrant was served and the excavation was completed on March 21.The school district was cooperative, said EPA Special Agent Michael Burnett. Petitioning the court for the search warrant was a matter of procedure, as school district grounds are private property, he said.Our goal is to get it out of the ground, Burnett said. The easiest and fastest way to do that is through a search warrant. District officials provided an inventory sheet that shows that 13 50-pound sacks of Dursban were purchased on March 10, 1988. There are no records to indicate what happened to that product or how it was disposed, said Sherry Fakkema, assistant superintendent and Bruce Worley, the district’s operations director.Ensuring that better records are kept is one area the district will work on, said Fakkema.The district uses what is called integrated pest management, Schulte said. Integrated pest management uses natural methods to control pests, and only in extreme cases of infestation would pesticides be used and then would be applied by a contracted professional, Schulte said.The superintendent said the district would continue to look into the chemical-dumping incident.Obviously this should not have happened, Schulte said. We are just trying to find out who did it and when, he said. The district is currently investigating.You can reach News-Times reporter Christine Smith at csmith@whidbeynewstimes.com or call 675-6611 “