While an Elmhurst educational complex composed of three secondary schools gets ready for 1,640 students who will enroll in September of next year, rumors about pollution in the area have filled some parents in the Queens neighborhood with fear.

A study by Toxics Targeting, an organization that gathers information about places with dangerous waste, points out that the close proximity of the campus to an old factory that generated toxins could be a threat to the project.

Walter Hang, president of the organization, assures that the pollution generated by the factory, which operated from 1947 to 1986 could have affected the adjacent soil with chemicals such as mercury, which are dangerous to people. “I’m not saying that it is an immediate danger, but it is a red flag that requires a broad investigation before placing children there,” he said.

Although the Elmhurst residents, mostly Latino and Asian, have shown approval of the school project, known as the Corona Park High School, the toxins reports have made them think twice.

“It scares me to know that I am about to send my son to this school and it turns out it’s contaminated,” said Marlene Jimenez, originally from Colombia, as she left Chafa restaurant on Corona Avenue. She asks that the city investigate the possible pollution further.

Juan Ortiz, whose sons attends a school a few blocks away from the new construction site, said that it is not necessary to be so alarmist, as the factory is five streets away. “If in reality that factory had affected the surrounding soil, we would all be sick because next door there are houses, stores and restaurants,” he commented.

The Department of Education (DOE) has denied that the school’s soil would be noxious for children.

“Due environmental diligence took place on this site in a very careful way, and two separate phases of research revealed a low level of oil contamination related to the adjacent warehouses,” said a statement from the DOE, adding that no agency has found traces of toxins in the area soil since 2004.