``I'm still concerned that if we do have a major chemical leak, the school and the community are in for big trouble,'' Augusta Commissioner Andy Cheek said. ``The truth is we shouldn't have built there in the first place.''

Mr. Cheek was a volunteer field officer for the Augusta-Richmond County Emergency Management office during the construction of Cross Creek High on Old Waynesboro Road, within a mile of the BP Amoco plant. He said he advised against building the school so close to the plant.

``We can't put the genie back in the bottle,'' Mr. Cheek said. ``The only recourse we have is to drill, drill and drill some more and be prepared in the event something catastrophic does happen.''

RICHMOND COUNTY Board of Education President Andrew Jefferson said he thought Tuesday's tragedy only reinforced how prepared BP Amoco is for any accident.

``I was really impressed by the safety measures and precautions taken and the communications between the plant and the school,'' he said.

According to a report prepared by the Local Emergency Planning Committee and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 46 public and private schools in Richmond County are within two miles of facilities that store ``extremely hazardous substances.''

The majority of affected schools are close to water treatment plants that use chlorine for water purification, or near two food processors - Castleberry's and Spuds - which use ammonia for refrigeration.

Seven schools are close to Richmond County's industrial ``cluster areas,'' which include some of the region's largest repositories of dangerous and toxic chemicals.

THOSE SCHOOLS - CROSS Creek High, Hains Elementary, East Augusta Middle, Gracewood Elementary, Gracewood State School, Hornsby Elementary and Southside Elementary - have been prioritized for additional emergency training.

Only Cross Creek was built after the Board of Education was warned of the dangers.

BP Amoco officials, along with the EPA and the Local Emergency Planning Committee, fought unsuccessfully against the Richmond County Board of Education's decision to build Cross Creek less than a mile from the plant's back gate.

When the EPA published a report that concluded the Board of Education was needlessly placing children's lives at risk by building so close to the plant, an Atlanta law firm hired by the school board went to war to get the report expunged and retracted - so there would be no liability in the event an accident occurred that affected the nearby children.

Pam Tucker, Augusta's former director of emergency management operations, declined to comment on Tuesday's incident. She did say she stands by her previous statements about the school and its proximity to BP Amoco Polymers.

In 1998, Ms. Tucker said it was ``irresponsible and unacceptable'' for the Cross Creek High School to be built so close to the plant. Specifically, she said, she feared a chemical leak from the plant during a high school football game would be a disaster waiting to happen.

SCHOOL BOARD member Kenneth Echols, who was on the board when the decision to build near BP Amoco was made, said he once shared some of the same concerns voiced by Mr. Cheeks.

``We did a lot of research, and we learned a lot about the plant's safety, and I no longer had those concerns,'' he said. ``Cross Creek is just as safe as any other school in Richmond County.''

Charles Larke, Richmond County's superintendent of schools, declined to comment on the issue.

According to the Washington-based Public Interest Research Group, an environmental watchdog organization, industry-laden Richmond County ranks 35th among more than 3,000 counties nationwide in risks associated with toxic chemical accidents.

Richmond County industries store 65 million pounds of the 94 ``extremely hazardous substances'' listed under state and federal reporting requirements, according to the report, making it Georgia's riskiest county.

Reach Justin Martin at (706) 823-3552 or Robert Pavey at 868-1222.