Beverly Hills High School field closed due to elevated arsenic levels

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (KABC) -- An athletic field at Beverly Hills High School was closed on the first day of school Tuesday due to elevated levels of arsenic.

The arsenic was found 5 feet underneath the lacrosse field. Officials said arsenic naturally occurs all across the Los Angeles Basin, but the levels found at the school were higher than acceptable.

In addition to the arsenic, methane gas fields have been a concern for years on the Beverly Hills High School campus, which was built on an oil field. The last functioning oil well is slated to close December 2016.

The elevated arsenic level was discovered during surveys in preparation for a multimillion-dollar building project on campus.

Beverly Hills Unified School District Board of Education President Brian David Goldberg said most of the parents' reaction was, "Oh no, not again."

"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 didn't anticipate. That's why we put a healthy contingency budget in place for these types of situations so that we can remediate these situations as quickly as possible," Goldberg said.

Goldberg said that practice space on campus is at a premium, so the athletic programs could be impacted by the closure of the field.

Parents were alerted via email, said Dave Jackson, the school's interim principal.

"I think that communication from the superintendent's office really helps because we're not hiding anything. There are no secrets," Jackson said.

Most parents said they are confident the school is taking every step necessary to protect their kids.

"It's disturbing, but arsenic is rat poison. It was found in the ground, not on top of the ground, not laying around the cafeteria. It was found in the ground. I'm not concerned about it. I'm glad that they found it. I'm glad they're keeping kids away from it. These are high school kids. I can't imagine they're going to start eating dirt," said Larry Gold, a parent.

The soil containing the arsenic will be replaced with new soil by sometime this month.