At least one Harrison resident would like a place to play pickleball.
That was about the extent of the public’s comment when federal environmental authorities conducted their once- every-five years review of the Lindane Dump Superfund Site located off Springhill Road — part of which is home to Alsco Community Park.
It has been almost 20 years since the multi-million dollar project to contain and treat the toxic substances, including the cancer-causing pesticide lindane, buried at the roughly 62 acre site, was completed.
The park, owned by Harrison Township, covers a little more than 14 acres; the rest, about 47.5 acres, is owned by the former Allegheny Ludlum Steel Corp., which is now part of Allegheny Technologies Inc., or ATI.
The most recent review, conducted last year, found the cap and systems to treat water coming from the site are working to protect human health and the environment by preventing exposure to the contaminated waste, soil and groundwater.
The park is safe to use, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency spokesman Roy Seneca said.
“EPA is not aware of any adverse effects on individuals’ health from the contaminants at the site since the remedy has been constructed,” Seneca said. “Impacts to the environment have been mitigated by construction of the multilayer cap and ongoing operation of the leachate/shallow groundwater collection and treatment system.”
Despite those reassurances and the report’s findings, some township residents remain reluctant to use the park because of its history, Harrison Commissioner Bill Heasley said. He grew up in that area and played softball at the park.
Conversely, there are likely newer township residents who “may not have any idea what was done there.”
Heasley said he has not heard of any problems with the park.
“I wouldn’t have a problem going there,” he said.
How toxins got there
The use of the site for mining and industrial waste disposal dates to the mid-to-late 1800s and Pennsylvania Salt Manufacturing. Penn Salt started making chemicals at a location near the site in 1850 and mined it for coal from the late-1800s through the mid-1900s. Allegheny Ludlum bought it in 1965 and used it as a dump until the mid-1980s.
More than 14 toxic chemicals were found at the site. In addition to lindane, there was benzene, chromium, lead, copper, arsenic, chlorobenzene, DDT and mercury.
While DDT, produced at the site for one year sometime between 1947 and 1955, is no longer detected, other contaminants, including lindane, are still being found.
Fix made in 1999
The containment and treatment systems at the site have been in operation since construction was finished in September 1999. They include a multi-layer soil and geosynthetic cap more than 18 acres, leachate and shallow groundwater collection and treatment, and groundwater monitoring.
Legacy Site Services, an agent of Elf Atochem (Arkema Inc.), is responsible for the long-term operation and maintenance.
A facility that treats water from the site before it is released into the Allegheny River is located at the bottom of the hill along Karns Road.
An average of 45,000 gallons of water go through it each day, according to the report.
The groundwater aquifer under the site is not used as a source of drinking water and, according to the review, no lindane has been found in the water going into the Harrison Township Water Authority’s treatment plant.
An authority representative could not be reached for comment.
“The volume of contaminated soil and debris that was present before the multilayer cap was constructed has not changed, nor was the remedy intended to reduce the volume of capped material,” Seneca said. “However, since construction of the multi- layer cap and leachate/shallow groundwater collection and treatment system, direct contact with contaminated media has been eliminated.”
No end to maintenance is seen in foreseeable future
“Operation and maintenance of the multilayer cap will be required for the foreseeable future,” Seneca said. “Operation and maintenance of the leachate/shallow groundwater collection and treatment system will be required as long as contaminants are present in leachate and shallow groundwater above the performance standards.”
Alsco Community Park was first built in 1976-77 after Ludlum donated the land to Harrison in 1972. It was closed and dismantled in 1998 when construction on the containment and treatment projects began, and was re-created in 1999.
In 2018, a Harrison Township representative told federal authorities there is “little community interest” in the site, and that “the township office has not received any calls in recent memory.”
The park includes tennis courts, baseball fields and open space. That the courts are cracked and in need of repair is among the report’s few findings requiring action.
It’s on the tennis courts that a local resident who contacted the EPA said pickleball courts would be wanted by “many people in the area, especially seniors, (who) are playing pickleball instead of tennis.”
The township has been considering plans to increase use of the park, but “nothing specific has been proposed and no work plan is in place,” the review says.
What can be done at the park is limited because the ground cannot be dug into deeply, Heasley said. Heasley said the township has considered converting a tennis court into a basketball court, as there are none in the Natrona Heights area. He also knows pickleball is popular. A dek hockey rink is another possibility.
“It would be nice to do something with the courts,” Heasley said. “I can’t remember seeing anyone playing tennis.”
The site will be reviewed again in 2023.
Brian Rittmeyer is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Brian at 724-226-4701, brittmeyer@tribweb.com or via Twitter @BCRittmeyer.
