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Watson Bowl Site of Contamination
22 August 2005
David Ahlgren
According to a news reports starting this
weekend, the Watson Park area is now shut down. According to the
stories, the park used to be the site of a burn dump, where farmers and
other locals would incinerate their waste. The incinerator was
closed down in the 1930's, and the area was turned into a park in the
1960's.
It is unclear as to how long the problem
has been known about, but the City of San Jose has spent over $800,00 in
the past year researching it.
The problem was found while excavating for
a skate park that was to be put in, a little over a year ago. The
City had initially closed the field #1 to study the situation, and now
have deemed it necessary to close the entire park. Details are
still conflicting, but it sounds like the Community center and maybe the
Bowl may remain open for at least the next little while. The
Watson 1 and 2 fields are now closed, as well as the dog park and the
garden area.
Apparently, this is a common problem for
the state of California, as there are over 500 documented burn sites, 50
of which are known to be hazardous. Chico and San Diego had this
problem and it ended up costing the city upwards of $5 million to
rectify. As in these other two cities, many houses could be
affected by the lead, mercury and other toxins in the dirt.
A likely solution would involve removing
all of the dirt, down to a safe level, and replenishing it with fresh
dirt. Don't look forward to a quick resolution, either, as it took
Chico over ten years to fix their problem. They have, however just
finished, and apparently all is well with them.
I'll update you as soon as I know where our
remaining Watson Park games are rescheduled to.
David Ahlgren
To read more (these are also the references
to my story), click on the links below:
San Jose Mercury News Watson Park Story
(you may have to sign up for the free
online newspaper--you can set your PC so you only have to log in once)
KRON
says perhaps the Bowl will remain open while they study what's going on.
KPIX
says the contamination was found when they were excavating for a
skateboard park.
KPIX
also says the entire park will be closed. |
