PCBs’ Presence Hits Hard for Rural Schools

In June, contractors visited the Cabot School here in northern Vermont on state’s orders to test buildings for toxic levels of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, a known carcinogen whose manufacture was banned nationwide in 1979.

Then two months went by.

“I was sort of sitting here thinking, no news is good news,” said Mark Tucker, the superintendent of the Caledonia Central Supervisory Union, which includes the 160-student Cabot School.

He was wrong. On Aug. 19, the contractors called to deliver th ... Read more