[CPEO-BIF] Watson Park, San Jose, California

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Watson Park toxics detailed
STUDY: SOIL CONTAMINATION EXTREME IN SOME SECTIONS

By April Lynch
San Jose Mercury News (CA)
December 13, 2006

Parts of San Jose's Watson Park are contaminated with levels of toxic 
chemicals 100 times higher than is safe for human health, according to 
the first comprehensive environmental survey of the recreation area 
built atop an old city trash dump.

The highest levels of toxins, including lead and chemicals known to 
cause cancer, turned up in the central section of the 40-acre park, the 
likely location of the former dump's incinerator and its 125-foot 
smokestack. The park's playground and neighboring Empire Gardens 
Elementary School showed lower but still notable levels of contaminants.

However, the northern section of the popular North San Jose park appears 
to be relatively clean. And a stretch of residential properties 
alongside the school, treated for lead contamination earlier this year, 
is now free of any other significant toxic residue.

The report, obtained by the Mercury News before its public release, also 
found that residue from the old dump isn't leaking any dangerous gases 
or contaminating nearby water -- a welcome sign that toxins haven't 
spread farther into the surrounding Northside neighborhood.



...

For the entire article, see
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/16228278.htm

--


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org


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