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McGolrick Park Soil Declared Toxin-Free After State Testing

By Gwynne Hogan | November 29, 2016 10:03am
 McGolrick Park will be studied as part of a cleanup of the toxic Meeker Avenue Superfund site. 
McGolrick Park will be studied as part of a cleanup of the toxic Meeker Avenue Superfund site. 
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DNAinfo/Gwynne Hogan

GREENPOINT — The soil in McGolrick Park is free of the toxic sludge that has contaminated both sides of Meeker Avenue, where the state is regulating cleanup efforts, the Department of Environmental Conservation said Monday.

Surface soil samples from the neighborhood park were tested and cleared as part of the Superfund cleanup process of the contaminated area known as the Meeker Avenue plume, according to DEC spokesman Kevin Frazier.

 

The area being tested as part of the cleanup process is outlined in black. 

The state released a public notice earlier this month, which included McGolrick Park, in its testing boundaries for the first time, briefly worrying community advocates overseeing the cleanup process because they had no idea why the park was added.

A public meeting on Dec 1. may help to clean up any lingering doubts. 

The state and ExxonMobil first detected the underground residual toxic chemicals trichloroethene and tetrachloroethene, two chemicals used for dry cleaning and removing grease from metals, in 2005 and 2006, in their study of another nearby plume.

They found the chemicals in soil, soil vapor and ground water, tracing their sources back to several now-defunct factories including Spic and Span Cleaners, Dyers, Klink Cosmo Cleaners, ACME Steel/Brass Foundry, Lombardy Street Lacquer and Soap, and Goodman Brothers Steel Drum Co, according to the state

The public meeting to discuss the Meeker Avenue Plume will be held at the Polish & Slavic Center at 176 Java Street from 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m.