By Nina Beety
Revised 8-10-26
Monterey Peninsula Unified School District, along with many school districts faced with shrinking enrollment and decreased revenues, is considering permanently closing schools and selling the properties. Currently, MPUSD’s 7-11 Committee is discussing the possibilities.
The most important part of MPUSD’s evaluations must be which school properties are safest and which are adjacent to hazards as a criteria for retention. It is not clear that safety is part of their considerations past or present. Schools with known or newly discovered toxins or hazards must be the first ones to be closed, and children moved to safer schools, even if they must be transported by school bus every day. Hazards can include toxics contamination, noise, air pollution, microwave antennas and cell towers, electrical substations, and high voltage lines.
Del Rey Woods Elementary School, at Plumas Avenue in Seaside, is one such hazardous location. It is located in PG&E’s high-voltage transmission line corridor and with cellular antennas mounted on the transmission towers across the street. Children attend classes and play in the playground in those elevated EMF and high microwave fields. The school must be closed.
Research has shown that children exposed to powerline frequencies are at risk of serious life-threatening illnesses especially leukemia. Cancer clusters occur within 1/3 mile of cell towers. Microwave radiation causes DNA damage, heart problems and many immediate and long-term health damaging effects. The students’ exposure is compounded by the Wi-Fi in the school. This is a dangerous environment for children and school staff, including staff members who are pregnant, but the school district has ignored this situation for years, with the current superintendent even sending his children to the school.
Marshall Elementary School on Normandy Road is another hazardous site. It is located on the Fort Ord National Priorities List Superfund site now part of Seaside, and sits below the large PFAS dump on Numa Watson Road which the Army only acknowledged in 2022. For at least 10 years until the 1990s, fire crews would purge their trucks of fire-fighting foam once a month as well as practice spraying foam at that location. It would go into the storm drains and into the Monterey Bay, as well as drain downhill, drying out and becoming dust to be carried by the wind to nearby homes and Marshall. Chartwell School, a private school, was built in 2006 immediately adjacent to the dump. When Chartwell School applied to expand the school last year, Seaside and Chartwell learned about the PFAS contamination for the first time. So did MPUSD’s superintendent PK Diffenbaugh who attended the planning commission hearing to support Chartwell’s expansion. He has taken no public action in the year since, despite that this dangerous contamination also affects Marshall Elementary.
Marshall should be shut down pending a full investigation of PFAS and other contaminants in and around the area in view of the risk to students and staff. The school district must also close Del Rey Woods School. They must move all these students to the former Monte Vista Elementary School on Soledad Drive in Monterey, which they have shut down, and to other safer campuses. The former Monte Vista is a much safer environment for children and school staff than many other locations. It is not near any cell towers or high voltage lines.
When the district made their decision to close Monte Vista, Foothill, and other schools in 2021, it was without proper consideration of the most important factors. The board and staff continue to ignore them and that their responsibility is to student and staff safety first. The school district needs to go back to the drawing board. In addition, the district must wire all internet connections and eliminate wireless internet in all its schools.
Sources:
https://mdsafetech.org/cell-tower-health-effects/
Cell Tower Radiation Health Effects
https://ehsciences.org/powerlines-emf-elf-magnetic-fields-health/
The Health Effects of EMF, ELF and Magnetic Fields from Power Lines and Electricity
https://ehsciences.org/major-wins-for-childrens-health-u-s-school-districts-are-opposing-high-voltage-power-lines-the-49ers-may-relocate-away-from-the-substation/
Nationwide Moves To Protect Children’s Health: U.S. School Districts Are Opposing High Voltage Power Lines + the 49ers May Relocate Away From the Substation!
https://peteranthonycowan.substack.com/t/49ers-emf-injury-series
Peter Cowan “49er EMF Injury Series”
https://peteranthonycowan.substack.com/p/reading-the-leaves-the-trees-near
Reading the Leaves: The Trees Near the 49ers’ Substation Knew First
Also, on Temecula Valley Unified School District:
https://ehsciences.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Temecula-Valley-Unified-School-District-Resolution-Opposing-the-SDGE-Golden-Pacific-Powerline-Project-Near-School-Facilities.pdf
PFAS contamination near Marshall Elementary School:
https://aec.army.mil/Portals/115/PFAS/POM_PASI.pdf?ver=50d44b8fvCrh6O006dqqPQ%3D%3D
Final Preliminary Assessment of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances V2, February 2022
4.3 Readily Identifiable Off-Post PFAS Sources, p. 11
https://www.militarypoisons.org/latest-news/pfas-at-the-former-fort-ord
Excerpt: Former nozzle testing area near the Chartwell School
Historic amounts of carcinogen PFAS foams were sprayed here.
Fire department personnel conducted training, fire hose and tank flushing, and nozzle testing in a paved area near the Chartwell School on Numa Watson Road until the 1990s, before the property was transferred to the City of Seaside.
Fire department personnel were trained to perform nozzle testing with AFFF to ensure optimal flow and release of the AFFF mixture. Nozzle testing involved spraying AFFF through fire equipment. Fire equipment training also included arc training to maximize the arc, reach, and distance covered by AFFF in an emergency response.
Training took place about once a month for at least 10 years, releasing approximately 30 gallons of AFFF concentrate during each event. The nozzle testing area was a large asphalt parking area with storm drains that lead to channels that discharge into Monterey Bay.
Approximately 3,600 gallons of AFFF concentrate was used here. Usually, firefighters mixed 3% concentrate with 97% water. A single event using 30 gallons would be mixed with 970 gallons of water to produce 1,000 gallons of foam.
On August 19, 2024, in one of the greatest PFAS accidents in the nation’s history, 1,450 gallons of PFAS-AFFF concentrate spilled from Hangar 4 at the former Brunswick, Maine Naval Air Station. In November 2022, there was another historic release of approximately 1,300 gallons of AFFF concentrate at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.
These historic releases don’t match the cumulative tragedy on Numa Watson Road.
Physicians for Safe Technology
https://mdsafetech.org/wi-fi-in-schools-2/
– Wi-Fi in Schools
Military Poisons
www.militarypoisons.org
– search “Fort Ord” for articles on base contamination
