Additional Soil Samples to be Taken at Cherry Blossom Park

After receiving a report from Environmental Resolutions outlining potential problems at Cherry Blossom Park, representative Rich Lake gave an overview of the report during Tuesday night's River Edge Council meeting. Among his suggestions for going forward are 10 additional soil sample tests prior to remediation.

"Among the concerns were the unregulated underground storage tank, asbestos in the building and the potential of pesticides from prior agricultural use of the property," Lake said.

At the beginning of the month, the storage tank was removed from the site and no underground leakage was found. Previous soil samples that were taken in August revealed the existence of chlordane, an insecticide that was used prior to 1983 for crops, lawns and gardens.

According to Lake, the chlordane only goes down about 12 inches into the ground. But additional soil testing is needed to determine how far spread on the property the pesticide was used and if it would warrant the removal of any trees on site.

To remediate the asbestos in the building prior to demolition of the building itself, will cost the borough somewhere between $20,000 to $25,000 while the cost for removal of the contaminated soil has an estimated range of $15,000 to $30,000.

"My recommendation is to do approximately 10 more samples to define the area of pesticides to a more narrow range," Lake said. "The additional samples have an estimated cost of $2,000."

The soil samples will be completed pending the availability of funding.