How much lead exposure does it take to poison a child? This much. And so far no one has guaranteed there isn’t this much lead remaining in the old Rocky Mountain Gun Club building, which is being repurposed to serve as Ascent Classical Academy’s new charter school in Grand Junction
Notice: Since this article was written, AnneLandmanBlog has found out from Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE)’s Hazardous Waste department expert in charge of dealing with closed firing ranges that Ascent contractor Vertex Companies of Denver utilized the wrong type of post-remediation testing technique for this facility, rendering the results in the report Ascent posted on August 11 invalid and essentially useless. Read more about it here.
The 8-page, post-lead remediation testing report that Ascent Classical Academy Grand Junction posted on its website August 11, 2023 (pdf) shows that 30 of the 66 sites tested for lead in the old Rocky Mountain Gun Club building at 545 31 Road, which is to serve as the new charter school, still have lead levels 5-23 times above HUD allowable limits.
And Ascent did not test the air inside the facility.
Derek Shuler, CEO of Ascent Classical Academies, in 2018 (Photo: YouTube)
The post-remediation testing was performed by the Vertex Company, which included a disclaimer in the report that essentially says it wasn’t feasible to test all areas of the building, so there may still be areas where lead dust levels exceed HUD limits.
And that certainly appears to be the case.
So far, neither Ascent nor Vertex, nor the Mesa County Public Health Department or the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment have provided a guarantee that children who attend school in the former Rocky Mountain Gun Club building, or the adults who will be teaching there, will be 100% safe from contracting lead poisoning as a result of spending time in the building.
Kids are more susceptible to lead poisoning than adults. They suffer worse effects, and the effects are irreversible.
The effects of lead poisoning are real, but may not show up until it’s too late. And the neurological and behavioral effects of lead poisoning are believed to be irreversible.
The U. S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says,
“No safe blood lead level (BLL) in children has been identified and even low levels of lead in blood can cause developmental delays, difficulty learning, behavioral issues, and neurological damage. The effects of lead poisoning can be permanent and disabling.”
“Exposure to lead can seriously harm a child’s health and cause well-documented health effects, including damage to the brain and nervous system, slowed growth and development, learning and behavior problems, and hearing and speech problems.”
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says,
“No safe blood lead level in children has been identified.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) says,
“There is no level of exposure to lead that is known to be without harmful effects,” and “Young children are particularly vulnerable to the toxic effects of lead and can suffer profound and permanent adverse health impacts, particularly on the development of the brain and nervous system.”
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) says
“There is no safe level of lead exposure in children.”
Yet hundreds of children are set to start attending school September 5 in Ascent Classical Academy’s building at 545 31 Road.
Here is Vertex’s lead remediation report (taken from their website) showing areas that are still above the HUD-recommended lead remediation limits of <10mcg/sq.ft.:
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4 – yellow highlight indicates lead levels in excess of those recommended by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
Page 5 – Areas over the HUD allowable limit for lead of 10 micrograms/square foot are highlighted in yellow.
Page 6
page 7
Page 8, with disclaimer
Praise the lord and pass the loot.
For real. I would love to see an investigation done on this ascent classical schools group. I would be shocked if you would not find a handful of people becoming very rich in this whole scheme.
You can lead a horse to water…
Lead poisoning is only a concern if you believe in facts and science.
But more seriously, the parents that are sending their kids to this school are more likely to vote for a party that is putting kids back to work in meat packing plants and forcing girls to give birth to their rapist’s baby. Measles have made a comeback due to anti-science, anti-vax parents. And I could go on… So this doesn’t surprise me, but I feel bad for the children.
If this school actually opens September 5 someone needs to call Child Protective Services.