The lacrosse field at Beverly Hills High School has been closed because of elevated levels of arsenic found five feet underground.
The elevated level was discovered during surveys in preparation for new building projects on campus, ABC7 reported. Tuesday is the first day of classes at the school.
In addition to the arsenic, methane gas fields have been a concern on the campus for years, and there is still a functioning oil well there that is slated to close in December of 2016.
“When you’re dealing with a 100-year-old campus and you’re looking at doing a massive building project on that campus, there’s lots of things that we’re going to find that we don’t anticipate,” Beverly Hills Unified School District Board of Education President Brian David Goldberg said.
Goldberg said practice space on campus is at a premium, so athletic programs could be affected by the closure of the field. The soil containing the arsenic will be replaced with new soil by some time this month.
—City News Service