Residents Hoping For Blanche Park Test Results Must Wait
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – About 30 people attended a meeting to hear the results of soil tests from Blanche Park in Coconut Grove Monday night.
However, the results that were expected to be back were not ready and residents were told more testing would be done.
Commissioner Marc Sarnoff attended the meeting with residents of the communities surrounding the park.
The City of Miami began additional testing last Thursday after contaminated soil was found at the park.
Tests performed in August showed that some of the dirt in one area of the parking lot at Blanche Park is tainted with toxic metals, dioxins and arsenic six inches to a foot beneath the ground.
At least 24 spots in the park were tested according to officials.
The new tests examined areas deeper, about 18 inches to two feet, beneath the surface.
Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff told concerned neighbors, ash dumped at the side back in the 1940s from an incinerator known as "Old Smokey" might be the reason for the contamination.
The city must do a complete investigation and submit the findings from it to the county by the middle of October.
