Contamination At Park In La Grange: Officials

LA GRANGE, IL – Soil contamination is a problem at La Grange's Sedgwick Park, which officials plan to address before park improvements.

Consultants for the Park District of La Grange have found metals such as arsenic, lead and mercury in the soil on the northeast side of the park.

According to a memo earlier this month, the park district's staff was unaware of the problem.

"It is important to emphasize that the area remains safe and poses no immediate threat to public health," the district's executive director, Jenny Bechtold, said in the June 9 memo.

In a May meeting, the park board discussed the option of adding two feet of soil to the park. That step, officials said, would satisfy the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.

At the May board meeting, consultants advised changing the Sedgwick layout. They said no foundations should be put on the northeast side.

Because of the issue, the district was advised to move the senior baseball field, which is on the northeast side, to the prep field area, according to meeting minutes. Doing so will reduce the district's number of baseball fields by one, officials said.

In place of the senior field, soccer could be played there, according to the district.

The cleanup is estimated at $1.3 million. With that unexpected cost, the district will no longer be able to pay for a dog park at Sedgwick, officials said.

At Monday's La Grange Village Board meeting, resident John Pluto, who lives near the park on East Avenue, feared two more feet of soil would worsen the area's drainage.

"I don't see it as a feasible plan," he said.

Pluto also said the district should not be required to foot the cleanup bill. The contamination, he said, is similar to the issues at the site of an old gas plant at 47th Street and Bluff Avenue. That property is across the street from the northeast side of Sedgwick.

In the late 1990s, the state determined that the site had contaminated soil.

"It has many of the same chemicals as in the park," Pluto said.

He spoke about this property to the Village Board last November.

In an email Tuesday, Bechtold, the district's executive director, said the district must follow La Grange and Metropolitan Water Reclamation District codes on stormwater drainage.