No soil contamination at controversial Bonita Springs school site

BONITA SPRINGS, Fla. – The Lee County School District says new tests found no traces of asbestos or petroleum products in the soil at the controversial school site located on Imperial Parkway.

The district paid GHD, a global environmental service company with offices in Fort Myers, $9,900 to conduct the tests, which required 60 different samples from the soil. Many neighbors believed asbestos had never been properly removed after old pipes were dumped there years ago. But the school district said the results from GHD show the site is free of contamination.

The announcement comes after the school board approved the site for a second time last month. The contract with the land had expired in May over soil contamination concerns.

Construction for the new school could begin in September, says Lee County Schools Superintendent Greg Adkins. He praised the location of the proposed school Thursday after the test results were released.

“It’s been a long time coming but I think that this is a wonderful site. It’s centrally located. You have a large number of students that live very, very close to the school — within walking distance. It’s in the city of Bonita and I just really couldn’t think of a better site for a school building,” Adkins said.

He hopes to see the school open to students in fall 2018.