RED HOOK — The cleanup of four Red Hook ball fields that closed earlier this year due to decades-old lead contamination will not be complete until 2018, Brooklyn Parks Commissioner Kevin Jeffrey told community members Monday.
In addition, seven other baseball and soccer fields in Red Hook will soon undergo "aggressive testing," Jeffrey told DNAinfo.
“It just shocks me that it’s going to take that long,” Brett Taylor, a local Little League coach and a director of operations at the Red Hook Community Justice Center, said Tuesday.
Taylor said his league already had to cancel its season this year due to the contamination issues.
Earlier this year, the four softball fields across the street from the New York City Housing Authority's Red Hook East Houses were closed to the public as the Environmental Protection Agency started its cleanup. The site — bounded by Hicks, Bay, Henry and Lorraine streets — is home to ballfields numbered 5, 6, 7 and 8.
It was softball field 7, next to the B61 bus stop, that was the site of a former smelting and refining facility, which likely caused the significant lead contamination in the soil, officials said. The building was demolished by 1940, according to the EPA.
Park officials hosted a meeting Monday night at the Red Hook Recreation Center to update locals on their timeline for testing and cleaning up the fields.
Some community members feared that the contaminated fields, most of which are still open to the public, pose safety hazards. Others were concerned by the years-long timeline for the project.
"We found surface levels of concern," Jeffrey told DNAinfo, referring to the lead contamination on the four fields that are already closed. Preliminary tests of other nearby fields indicate the contamination is deep enough below the soil surface level that the cleanup can wait, officials said.
By early December the Parks Department will begin soil testing at baseball fields 1, 2 ,3 and 4 and soccer fields 4, and 5, all located on Columbia Street between Ikea and the Gowanus Bay Terminal.
Testing will also take place at soccer field 3, which Manhattan private school Xavier High School plans to revamp to use for after-school sports programs and weekend practices.
The next public meeting on the topic will be held in February to provide results of the extensive soil testing.
The entire Red Hook recreation area, bounded by Columbia, Hicks, Lorraine, Clinton and Court streets near the waterfront, consists of baseball, softball and soccer fields, a track, and a Works Progress-era community pool and recreation center.
Soil samples were initially collected near the former Columbia Smelting and Refining Works in February 2012 when elevated lead levels were found, according to the EPA's website.
Following a referral by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the EPA assesed the site and tested the soil in October 2014 and spring 2015.
Elevated lead levels were also found in ball field 9 and soccer fields 1, 2 and 6, between Court and Clinton Streets, but since the location of the contaminants is below ground-level, they do not cause an immediate health concern, officials said.
Remediation in those fields will only begin once the currently-closed fields are reopened, Jeffries said.
City Councilman Carlos Menchaca, who attended the Monday night meeting, said he was "encouraged" by the consistent testing being performed at the fields.
He is advocating for officials to make the fields available to little leagues and youth groups as soon as possible after remediation.
The Parks Department has been helping youth sports teams find alternative arrangements while the clean-up and testing continues, Menchaca added.
"[The] safety of our children needs to be at the forefront of every move," he said.
