The Southampton School District is working to clean up contaminated soil surrounding the former Majors Path prekindergarten building after an underground heating oil storage tank leaked into the ground.
At the district’s Board of Education meeting on Tuesday night, officials explained that the leak was discovered last week and reported to the State Department of Environmental Conservation. Since then, they met with DEC representatives, with whom they are working on a plan to fix the problem as soon as possible. It is not known how many gallons leaked from the 1,000-gallon tank.
The district will be responsible for removing the tank before remediation can begin. Insurance will cover the soil remediation after the district pays a $10,000 deductible, Superintendent Dr. Scott Farina confirmed, although it will not cover the cost of removing the tank.
The former prekindergarten building is not being heated now, and has not been used for student instruction for a few years. More recently, it has been used for storage and as a maintenance workshop.