EPA Meeting: Topic Cleanup of Johnson Blvd. Ball Fields

\”We will discuss the start of the EPA’s clean-up of recreational properties along Johnson Boulevard, including the ball fields and the land preserve,\” Project Manager Rick Robinson said.

The clean-up of radioactive thorium buried in the soil will begin at Essex Street and Johnson Boulevard this fall, behind the pump house and at the north ball fields, he said.

\”The Gloucester City Mustangs will play on their current field through 2009,\” said Robinson, adding that in 2010 there will be no access to the parking lot.

He said that a proposed practice football field will be built near the Fort Nassau playground. Also, the EPA wants to build a proposed T-Ball field in between there and the two fields near the Ponytail Girls Softball League complex.

The north Little League ball fields will be closed in 2010 and 2011, and they will move to the south field, Robinson said. Work on the north fields should be completed in 2011.

He emphasized that the elevated levels of thorium at the ball fields were addressed in 1999, to prevent any long-term risks.

\”Contamination is mainly below the ground surface, approximately one foot below the surface of the north fields and about four feet below the surface at the south fields,\” Community Involvement Coordinator Natalie Loney stated in the Welsbach/General Gas Mantle Superfund Site newsletter.

Robinson said the EPA received federal stimulus money, enabling this phase of the clean-up in Gloucester City to proceed sooner than originally thought.

source Gloucester City News