An Ohio school that was closed five years ago after radioactive contamination was confirmed on its property is going up for auction in August – with the radioactive contamination still intact.
WKRC reported the Zahn’s Corner Middle School in Pike County was unexpectedly in the news in June 2019 when an environmental chemist published a report that found uranium in dust samples collected from inside the school. The uranium found its way into the school from the nearby Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant (PORTS), which was used to enrich uranium for use in nuclear weaponry.
One month later, the U.S. Department of Energy that concluded “radioactivity was present” in samples collected from the property, but added this was “due to naturally occurring radionuclides.” PORTS was closed two years after the school was shuttered.
The presence of the uranium has been blamed for the death of one dozen former students, with some dying from rare cancers. But the Portsmouth Paducah Project Office (PPPO), the agency responsible for the demolition and remediation of PORTS, claimed that an analysis of the school found “no radioactivity detected above naturally occurring levels and no cause for public health concern.”
The school was never remediated or demolished, and earlier this month Brewster Real Estate & Auction Co. LLC announced on Facebook that the property will be auctioned on Aug. 17 with a minimum bid of $275,000. The auction announcement claimed the school “offers unlimited potential” and is being sold “with all furnishings and a complete commercial kitchen.” The auction company added that potential buyers could transform the school into “a training center, offices, medical, sales, or manufacturing,”
Within the community around the school, public protests have occurred denouncing the sale of the still-contaminated property. Scioto Valley Local School District Superintendent Wes Hairston acknowledged the continued contamination at the property but argued the sale was proper.
“From our perspective, we spent a lot of money on that school to keep it functional,” Hairston said. “The school board made a very responsible decision to close it. Also, I would tell you that it’s a very responsible decision to sell it.”
