Closer Look At Bowl For Contamination Unlikely To Slow Start Of Ballpark

By Risa Polansky
The most recent environmental assessment of the Orange Bowl site turned up a few questionable locations that need a second look — but nothing that is expected to stall the process of building a Florida Marlins ballpark there.

"It will not hold up the project," said Robert Fenton, a project manager in the Miami city manager’s office.

Bureau Veritas Group, the firm contracted to analyze the site, noted five areas in which chemical levels in the soil may exceed those allowed by Miami-Dade County code, and two areas where groundwater also may contain more chemicals than code allows.

The firm "recommends further assessment in these locations to define the extent and volume of impacted soils" and "re-sampling the groundwater at these locations to confirm or deny the presence of groundwater impacts," according to the report.

Mr. Fenton said the additional testing should be complete within three weeks.

He called the issues "minor in nature."

Results of the pending tests could indicate some soil would need to be removed, or find no need for treatment.

"We’re not anticipating anything serious at this point," Mr. Fenton said.

Noted areas include the site of a former US Naval Reserve Armory, where arsenic levels exceed those allowed in county code; a storage area for paint and janitorial supplies, where they also detected arsenic; and an area where perhaps too-high levels of naphthalene, also known as "white tar" and the main ingredient in mothballs, were found in the groundwater.

A closer look at the former site of a filling station on the Orange Bowl property showed "no evidence of residual petroleum-related impacts to the soil or groundwater," another report says.

Bureau Veritas removed three steel underground storage tanks from the site and recommended the county’s Department of Environmental Resources Management grant "clean closure status" to the area, freeing the city from future testing there. Advertisement