According to the Administration of Mayor Donald Grebien and the Pawtucket City Council, Morley Field was shut down after Alliance Environmental Group, a contractor paid by developer JK Equity, discovered dangerous levels of toxins at the field. The City moved quickly to fence Morley Field off and prevent people from accessing it, and JK Equity rapidly advanced their plan to pave Morley Field for use as a parking lot.
Morley Field is the the only greenspace in Pawtucket’s District 5, an environmental justice community. District 5 encompasses the Woodlawn neighborhood (which is just north of Providence, along I-95, west of Pawtucket Ave), which is approximately 74% people of color with 59% of people living at or below the poverty rate. 29% of the population are children. Woodlawn is a working class neighborhood where most people live in triple deckers or multifamily units, often with no backyard.
If one reviews the sampling paid for by the developer, it becomes clear that the tests were done at great depth (0’ - 18’). Eighteen feet! But even at this depth, using field equipment, the tests showed that lead exposure and other heavy metals are not crazy High and do not meet Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) high exposure levels warranting clean up. In addition, there is only one sample (GZ-02) in the JK Equity testing that is far above the others and that anomaly may be a result of the sampling tools hitting a buried lead pipe or a pocket of contaminants. This sample is by far the outlier compared to all the others. Also, while there may be benzo/benzene compounds which are dangerous to health, the testing done makes it unclear if such compounds exist on the surface where exposure is most likely to occur, or deeper underground where exposure is much less likely.
In all the literature that we reviewed about soil sampling for detecting toxic materials, it was stated that sampling should be done on the surface, just under the sod root-mass, where exposure to children and adults is most likely to happen. Upon conducting our own soil tests we posit that the soil sampling done by the Alliance Environmental Group on behalf of JK Equity was inappropriate for determining a public health hazard and thus the closing of the park may have been premature.
We sampled six Pawtucket playing fields and parks, including Morley Field. I followed all directions as specified by the University of Vermont (UVM) Extension service - I took between 14 and 16 surface samples for each site, combined the samples, mixed them, removed stones, roots, and other large particles, and submitted them to the lab, approximately one cup of material for each park.
According the UVM (and other soil testing programs), lead (Pb) has a normal background value of 1.0. A value of 50 or greater is considered high. The EPA states that only soil levels of 400 or above require remediation. The State of New York allows unrestricted use of soils up to 200, including agriculture.
So, what is the amount of lead in the soil at Morley Field by my sampling? 4.1
For comparison, Max Read Field (the natural grass sections) has a value of 12.7! More than three times the levels of lead found at Morley Field. And Max Read Field is where the City of Pawtucket moved the kids when they shut down Morley Field!
O’Brien Field has a lead level of 22.4, five times that of Morley Field.
Note that all of these tests show that the lead levels are well below what is considered dangerous by the UVM soil testing lab, the EPA, the State of New York, and others.
If these other fields are considered safe, and I assume the City of Pawtucket believes they are, then why are kids not allowed to play at Morley Field? If there’s something dangerous at Morley Field - and it is possible there is - the proper tests need to be conducted by an independent party.
More coverage of Morley Field:
- Pawtucket continues plan to permanently shut down Morley Field
- Rally to save Morley Field shows opposition to paving greenspace gaining momentum
- Pawtucket moves to eliminate remaining green space in an environmental justice community
- Pawtucket has Plans to Make Two Environmental Justice Neighborhoods Green-Free
- Pawtucket continues plan to permanently shut down Morley Field
- Gerritt: The closing of Morley Field is illegal
- Pawtucket approves deal to pave most of Morley Field, legality remains in question