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Soil samples taken on the perimeter of a lead-contaminated Miami Twp. park — close to the backyards of homes — show mostly what health officials call acceptable levels of the metal.
Other Layer Park soil results, environmental officials said, vary widely — in some instances more than 50 times the level of acceptability. So they want to sample more than 30 private properties (as possibly more) near the closed park to determine any risk.
Until those soil results are in, local public health officials are recommending residents whose land abuts the park suspend any gardening efforts.
“They could have direct contact with that lead contaminated soil,” said Thomas Hut, supervisor of the bureau of special services for Public Health Dayton-Montgomery County.
“And there’s also the risk of garden vegetables being impacted by that contaminated soil,” he added. “Certain root vegetables….lead can be taken into the vegetable itself and the vegetable could indeed become contaminated.”
>> MAP: Where was the lead at Layer Park?
Testing is expected to begin this week, weather permitting, according to Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Spokesman James Lee. No time frame has been set for completion of the cleanup.
For now, “we want to sample the properties that directly border the park,” Lee stated. “Depending on results of these samples….the number of properties to be sampled could be expanded.”
The U.S. EPA has taken charge of clean up at the park — the site of a shooting range from the 1930s to 1950s that was later known at Bush-Dell Park. It stepped in at the request of the Ohio EPA, which this past week it was revealed disregarded for nearly three years soil results from the 7-acre park showing "obviously elevated" lead levels.
It wasn’t until last month that concerns of landowners around the park were heightened. The OEPA sent letters in late March seeking to access their yards.
Before April, records show, many consented in what Hut called a positive move.
“It is good to see that those (acceptable) levels were found along the park boundary,” he said. “But again, we can’t say certain what’s across the fence without testing.”
Fourteen homes on Bushwick Drive, 11 on Polo Park Drive, four on Cordell Drive, two on Rolling Woods Trail and one on Lehigh Place are being sought for testing, according to Lee.
As of late last week, the owners of 17 of 32 properties adjacent to the park agreed to the OEPA tests, Lee said.
Judy Baker of Polo Park, records show, signed the consent form April 3, the day before the closing of the park was announced. Baker is concerned because she said high lead concentrations were found close to her fence line and her husband “likes to play in the ground.”
Acceptable lead levels, officials said, are less than 400 parts per million, which “is established by the U.S. EPA for lifetime exposure (every day/all day) in residential areas,” according to Lee.
Industrial standards, 1,000 ppms or greater, “are based on exposure during a normal work day (for example eight hours per day/five days per week),” he stated.
None of the nearly 20 areas tested along the park’s northern and western perimeters — along Bushwick and Cordell — indicated levels of 400 ppms or above, according to OEPA records. Four areas near Polo Park homes tested higher than 400 ppms, with one recording levels exceeding 1,000, those same records show.
Results indicate 17 areas showing 400 ppms or greater are on the park’s eastern portion, further away from homes, records show. Ten of those indicate concentrations higher than 1,000 ppms with some being as high as 23,000 ppms, said Steve Wolfe, U.S. EPA on-site coordinator.
Those readings, Wolfe said, don’t constitute an emergency, but rather a “time-critical removal action.”
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