I-Team

FT. LAUDERDALE (CBS4) ― I-Team Update 03/18 -- After this story first aired, the CBS4 I-Team has confirmed that the developer, MG3 Developer Group, withdrew its proposal to rezone the land for a school. It now appears the school will not be built. Environmental lawyer Louise Caro and the Broward Zoning Board tell the CBS4 I-Team that if the developer intends to pursue the construction of a school there in the future, it would have to "start from scratch.


Choosing a school for a child can already be a difficult decision, but parents in one Fort Lauderdale neighborhood expressed outrage over what the CBS4 I-Team has uncovered -- plans to try and build a school right next to what was a toxic waste site.

In fact, it was so contamined, it made the government's list of Superfund sites in need of clean-up. The government says it cleaned up the landfill and capped it, but it's what happened next that has shocked some residents there.

"When you hear the word Dioxin what do you think?" asked CBS4 Chief I-Team Investigator Michele Gillen.

"Poison, poison," replied Fort Lauderdale resident Claude Marquez.

A poison -- the mention of which makes 85-year-old Claude Marquez shudder.

Dioxin -- it's his neighbor. It's in the fish in the lake behind his house and the sediment and soil in the Fort Lauderdale neighborhood was once swollen with it. In fact, just beneath what today looks like an inviting grassy hill, sits what was one of the nation's most hazardous waste sites.

"And now we hear that someone has some interest in building a school here? When you heard that what did you think?" Gillen asked Marquez.

"I almost flipped," he replied

The CBS4 I-Team has learned of plans to build a charter school on a former junkyard that's just steps from what was the city's garbage and incinerator site, the Wingate dump. For decades, that incinerator spewed toxic ash on the nearby neighborhood. The property sits directly on the lip of a lake you might not want to take a swim in. A sign next to the lake warns that the fish are contaminated with Dioxin, and says children under 6 and pregnant women shouldn't eat any fish from it.

So when asked about building a school there, resident Bobby Parker told the I-Team that "it doesn't make any sense at all. Seems to me that would be a little dangerous don't you think?"

That's the question the CBS4 I-Team wanted to pose to MG3 Developer Group of Hollywood.

Gustavo Bogomolni is listed on the company's website as a principal. Records show his company purchased the plot next to the Wingate superfund site and the lake. Gillen asked about their proposal for a school.

"Which one?" asked Bogomolni.

"In The Wingate area," replied Gillen.

"We dont have anything in Wingate ..." replied another MG3 Developer Group manager.

But their own map on their own website shows that Wingate address.

"People want to know how you could be involved with proposing a school to be on property next to an area that's been so contaminated in the past," Gillen told the managers.

"We can schedule something so we can explain you with the experts," he replied.

The developers never did get back to us.

"Safety and security is a great issue," said Rod Sasse, director of Imagine Charter Schools in Broward County. According to documents submitted to the zoning board, MG3 Developer Group plans to build an Imagine Charter School on the site.

"Tell me about why building a charter school there?" asked Gillen.

"Well, first of all, its not necessarily that area. It's the community. the community has come to us," replied Sasse.

"Can you give me some names of people in that community who want a school on that street?" asked Gillen.

"Im talking about parents and other people that we have talked to . Not necessarily on that street," replied Sasse.

"But we're talking about that street," said Gillen.

" Its so outrageous, its beyond outrageous. The residents are furious, they say we don't want it, they think I'm joking when I tell them," said Louise Caro, an environmental attorney with the Legal Aid service of Broward County, which has for years demanded better cleanup of the contamination from the Wingate dump.

Her thoughts on building a school here?

"It's just not a good idea. This just cannot happen here," said Caro.

"It's a facility for young children that they are proposing to build on a site that s a former junkyard that ... sits next to the former superfund site," Gillen asked Sasse, Imagine's local director.

"Which will not be approved by the regulatory agencies if it has all what you are saying about it," replied Sasse.

The School Board has approved the charter school's initial application without knowing where it would be built.

"So the school board is just voting on a charter school with no address?" asked Gillen.

"The state law allows them to approve the application without a site specific," Sasse replied.

Following our interview, Sasse informed the CBS4 I-Team that just that day he filed with the School Board to delay his project, which means he doesn't have to provide an address anytime soon.

Meanwhile, the Zoning Board is set to again take up the developers proposal next week.

"It shows attitudes have not changed. C'mon this is the same community that has been suffering so long. This is like adding an extreme insult to injury to even consider it," said Caro.

The Environmental Protection Agency says the clean-up and capping of that once toxic land has worked. According to the agency's 2005 review, it remains "protective of human health and environment."

But as far as building a school next door? An EPA official told the CBS4 I-Team that's a decision for state and local government.

(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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