Army Corps of Engineers will examine Chickasaw Elementary for WWII debris, toxins

Army Corps of Engineers will examine Chickasaw Elementary for WWII debris, toxins
Rich McKay | Sentinel Staff Writer
February 25, 2009
ORANGE COUNTY - Sometime in the next two months, teams from the Army Corps of Engineers will check the grounds at Chickasaw Elementary School for any sign of debris or contamination left from a former World War II-era bombing range. Project manager Randy Curtis told Orange County commissioners Tuesday that there is no cause for alarm because the school at 6900 Autumnvale Drive appears to have been built in a buffer zone for the former Orlando Army Airfield, Toxic Gas and Decontamination Yard -- and not on an active area. The 2,100-acre site came to light during an investigation of another bombing range. In the 1940s, when the land was swamp and scrub, the Army used the land as a toxic-gas yard.