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Letter to the editor

City must get serious about arsenic problem

It is difficult to decide whether to be appalled that state officials took almost four years to figure out there could still be an arsenic problem in a Largo nature preserve, or relieved that they unearthed the problem from wherever things go that fall between the cracks and now seem eager to make up for lost time.

How fortunate that the arsenic in the Largo Central Park Nature Preserve is not considered an immediate - as in emergency - health threat, because then you'd have tragedy compounding the bureaucratic lethargy.

State and Largo officials have known since 2002 that there is arsenic in the soil of the nature preserve, which is near the intersection of East Bay Drive and Highland Avenue, behind a golf driving range. In May 2002, a consultant hired by the city sampled the top 6 inches of soil in six locations around the preserve land and found arsenic in all of them. The levels were high enough to require action to protect the public from exposure to arsenic, which can raise the risk of cancer.

Levels of arsenic were particularly high in an area around the observation tower, leading city officials to theorize that the arsenic contamination in the park came from the use of pressure-treated lumber to construct the tower and walkways. However, the property also is an old landfill, so the source of the arsenic is not truly known.

Largo notified the state in April 2004 that in response to that finding, the city had taken several steps to keep the public safe from exposure, including fencing off some areas, putting a 24-inch-deep "dirt cap" and flowers atop other contaminated areas, and erecting signs telling visitors to stay on designated trails.

The state wanted more soil samples as well as water samples taken from the highly contaminated area around the tower, but in that April 2004 letter to the state Department of Environmental Protection, a Largo official said the city "does not ... feel that the sampling is warranted."

That's where everything stopped. There was no further action by the state or city. Meanwhile, people hiked and jogged and picnicked in the Central Park Nature Preserve. Boy Scouts and other groups slogged around through it picking up trash. Canoeists paddled in the ponds and canals. And sporting events and other public activities were held there regularly.

If anyone at the state or local level had any concern about the health of all those folks using the preserve, no one pursued it.

Then this month the state DEP sent a letter to Largo announcing that it had reviewed the file on the nature preserve (the letter noted the last correspondence on the issue was in April 2004), and found the city's corrective actions there, and even the original soil sampling, inadequate.

The letter notes that in 2005 the DEP was given new authority to review and enforce action at contaminated sites around the state. Apparently, Largo's contaminated property eventually got reviewed and got snagged.

The DEP letter contains some disturbing information, including that the "plume" of arsenic contamination never was determined - in other words, how deep and wide it had spread - and the leaching potential of the arsenic is not known. This in an area dotted by ponds and surrounded by subdivisions and mobile home parks.

Has the arsenic leached into the ponds or below ground into the water table? Has it spread from the city-owned property? It is impossible to know the answers when only six 6-inch soil samples were taken in the preserve.

The good news is that the DEP, armed with new authority under state law, apparently intends to use it to ensure that the public is protected in the future. The city of Largo should share the state's eagerness to get to the bottom of the arsenic problem at the Central Park Nature Preserve.

[Last modified January 29, 2008, 20:06:36]