Before Seattle Public School spent $300 million to rebuild Rainier Beach High School on a peat bog, scientists hired by the district warned that methane in the soil could pose an explosive problem if it were to leak into the school.
The scientists recommended several standard safety measures to prevent that from happening. But a KUOW investigation found that Seattle Public Schools skipped some of those safety recommendations.
The school’s campus was part of Lake Washington until engineers lowered the lake in 1916, leaving rich deposits of organic matter. Peat soil is notoriously tricky to build on, and before the building opened to students last April, its foundation had already settled unevenly, and far more than predicted — one hazard of building on peat…