Had the state done that a year earlier, it would have shaved $200,000 off the price of remediating the building, according to Power, "and based on the reasoning employed by the [state] health department, no one's health would have been placed at risk by performing a more modest and reasonable cleanup".
Peyton Eggleston, a professor of pediatrics and immunology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, said, "We [also] need an intervention study that will take a damp building, remediate it, and show in a rigorous scientific way that there is both a measurable environmental impact and a measurable health impact".
Ultimately, Mr. Barrett said, the site will be remediated as it is developed, with each building, landscaping or parking lot serving as a cap to seal in contaminants, including hydrocarbons, from the train operations.
Building an outstanding teaching staff also requires identifying and remediating areas of weakness.
Buildings with high radon levels can be remediated to reduce exposure to people living and working in them.
Mr. Schmidt said the North Water Street building sits on contaminated soil that must be remediated.
In schools, inadequate ventilation, use of toxic pesticides and cleaners, offgassing from building materials and furnishings, and poor maintenance should be remediated to avoid increases in asthma, allergies, and other respiratory diseases.
The well-heeled residents of Superior Ink — including the fashion designer Marc Jacobs and the actress Hilary Swank — preferring not to be displaced indefinitely while waiting for insurance reimbursements, last year ponied up a $1 million assessment to quickly remediate damage to the building's mechanical systems caused by an influx of saltwater from Hurricane Sandy.
On Selleck Street the derelict Global Meat-Slicing Mandine and Plating Company, vacant for 20 years, is being demolished and its five-acre lot is to be remediated by Mathew Kenny, head of Global Development Enterprises L.L.C. "We are looking for anchor tenants for a 55,000-square-foot building that could accommodate offices and research and development companies," he said.
He said the problem had been remediated.
