“There’s going to be a lot of traffic in the residential area,” said Steve Wolfe, EPA on scene coordinator. “We’re going to have spotters out there to make sure it’s controlled in that area as you turn into the park – make sure the residents are safe, school buses can get through – that we’re not having trucks back it up.
“Six hundred trucks is a lot of trucks for that area,” Wolfe said Wednesday night as he outlined plans for the cleanup.
About 50 to 75 trees will be removed between now and late January or February, he said. Soil removal will likely begin in March or April – depending on weather - and take about four months, he said.
“We’re going to work with the township and the county on how they want it restored back,” he said. “There’s some leeway that we have, but we just want to make sure it meets their specifications.
“We can restore the ground to the way they want (and) put in the trees they want coming back within reason,“ Wolfe said, noting that the agency will replace mature trees with younger species.
The increased truck traffic is necessary because the vehicles’ load capacity of 20 tons each, Wolfe said.
Montgomery County “is helping us find a place where we can stage trucks so they’re not just stopped on the side of neighborhood streets. Work hours will pretty much be daylight to daylight,“ he said.
Township officials have said for months they plan to follow the EPA’s lead with the cleanup. The township will catalog the number and species of trees removed and discuss replacements next summer with the EPA, according to Township Public Works Director Dan Mayberry.
He also noted “the U.S. EPA is completely in charge of the truck staging, traffic flow and safety of all motorists.”
The park jointly owned by the county and the township did not reopen this year after Ohio EPA tests showed high concentrations of lead – as high as 60 times acceptable levels - in the soil. The agency notified local officials about the issue in late March and Public Health Dayton-Montgomery County posted signs and cordoned off the park in early April.
The U.S. EPA became involved in the case after one state agency official said high lead levels were initially detected at the park in 2013, but results were ignored in what the OEPA's Michael Proffitt termed "a big mistake."
The OEPA also tested soil samples on about 25 private properties nearby and found elevated lead levels in the yard of only one neighboring home.
The vast majority of the contaminated portion – 2.25 acres on the eastern side that is more wooded - is county property. Only 0.25 acres on the western side – the township portion to that includes a baseball diamond – is affected by the cleanup, according to the EPA.
By the numbers: EPA Layer Park cleanup
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will begin removing lead-contaminated soil at Layer Park in Miami Twp. next spring. The following are figures associated with the cleanup:
$3.1 million – Estimated cost of park cleanup.
24,000 – The parts per million reading of park soil samples with the highest concentration of lead.
6,750 – Tons of soil expected to be removed from the park.
600 – Number of trips trucks carrying a capacity 20 tons of soil are expected to make during the cleanup.
400 – The parts per million threshold of acceptable lead levels in soil in residential areas.
120 – Estimated days the soil removal will take.
50 to 75 – Number of trees expected to be removed in the park cleanup.
25 – Homes surrounding the park from which soil samples were taken.
7.5 – Acreage of the park.
7 – Months the park has been closed due to lead-contamination.
2.5 – Acreage involved in soil removal.
1 – Homes at which soil samples showed elevated concentrations of lead.
Source: U.S. EPA
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