Soil contamination concerns at Edison Tech

Weeks into the football season, a high school practice field is strangely silent. You might be surprised to learn that decades ago, Edison Tech in Rochester was built over a former landfill. Now, part of the athletic field is closed because of contamination concerns.

The school, for grades 10 through 12, is on Rochester's west side near Interstate 390. The athletic fields are to the west of the school. The field in question is the one next to

The normally busy practice field at Edison Vocational School is now deserted. This after the Rochester City School District ordered the testing of soil samples to make sure the ground here is not contaminated.

“I called the city school district and the health department and collectively together we went out and we took samples of the soil at the field,” says Willie Sanders.

Willie Sanders is president of the Edison parents group and the parent of a student athlete. He called for the testing after broken glass and rocks were unearthed on the football field. 

“What we just want to make sure is that the area is safe for our kids and the last time it was inspected or something was done, we have no idea, maybe about ten years ago.”

Sanders remembered that the school was built on a landfill. The site for the school was the old Emerson landfill.   

“The landfill is under the fields. The school is on bedrock, so the school is not an issue,” says Dr. William Cala.

Acting Superintendent Dr. Cala says the school was built to meet strict environmental safety guidelines. Still, he says the tests are being done as a precaution.    

 “There is a history with the location of that field being on a landfill and we want to make sure that that is not surfacing of landfill versus the inadvertent mixing of glass from, I guess that was an old, they had glass recycling plant. And when they topped off the field that the glass didn’t get mixed in with the soil,” says Cala.

“We just want to make sure that everything is safe for the kids,” says Sanders.

According to Dr. Cala, results from two of the five samples are in and they've come back negative meaning there is no contamination. The rests of the tests results will be in Thursday.