The FDEP ( Florida Department of Environmental Protection) is recommending that the Middle River Terrace Park, on Dixie Highway north of 13th Street, be placed on the EPA’s Superfund Enterprise Management System.
The City park sits next to a site that has been found to have an unacceptable level of arsenic, discovered when the City was considering the site as an addition to their 4-acre park next door.
The MRT park was developed in 2000 and 2001, when numerous dangerous crackhouses and apartment buildings were bulldozed to make way for the park. The neighborhood had pushed for the park, and it has become an important part of the area.
According to City Manager Lee Feldman, there” absolutely were environmental tests done”, back when the City purchased the land in 2000. The City’s policies call for environmental tests that search for things such as arsenic before buying land. But Feldman added that no one is sure if something could have happened next door after the city developed the park.
Feldman added that it is conceivable that the park could close, if the EPA testing shows dangerous conditions in the park.
Arsenic is generally considered to be a danger to groundwater, not to land. Tests at the site next door show the arsenic at least two feet underground, and arsenic falls when introduced into the land.
The real concern is arsenic reaching the water table, and making it’s way to the Biscayne Aquifer, where much of the City’s drinking water originates. That site is being monitored with test wells, and a final determination of site mitigation has not been made.
A former neighborhood President of Middle River Terrace, Laura Croscenco, is suspected of being the catalyst for the investigation into the park. The report sites a local resident as the reportee, and Croscenco had been complaining to city officials for the past year, after her disappointment that the City backed away from purchasing the land next door for the park addition.
Croscenco
An assessment of the situation is now planned by the FDEP, where more investigation into the matter will be taken. If the assessment proves problematic, soil tests could follow.
There goes my pipedream of a dog park.
well that just plain old stinks (sucks)…..
if they close down that park the neighborhood will have quite a blight on it’s hands……
screw it, nobody who goes there seems to care. i certainly go by both properties and i am not worried in the least.
Party On!
This woman has her own agenda, and to an outsider, it would seem she is trying to destroy everything good in her own neighborhood.
I heard her at a commission meeting speaking against major, long overdue improvements that are slated for NE 13th street, she is against a rail station there, wants to tear down a nice place that was built for neighbors to sit at the water’s edge, and now is the driving force behind the possibility of a beautiful park being closed down because she couldn’t force the city to buy the property next door.
Why the neighborhood lets her continue to speak on their behalf ( supposedly) is beyond me. If she was over here, she’d have
been thrown out a long time ago.
I have attended meetings in which she tries to dominate the room, and watched almost everyone roll their eyes when she speaks- no one wants to hear her babble incoherantly about issues that only concern her,
Wake up MRT- if you don’t lose this person as a representative ( supposedly) of the neighborhood, I seriously doubt you will ever be held in high regard downtown…
It is a sad day when a neighbor holds a neighborhood hostage. This lady is going to get her’s in triplicate.
We have a district commissioner.
A park is always a cherished asset of any community.
Call your commissioner and ask for his labor on this issue.
The election is around the corner.
After she compared schoolbuses to gas chambers I started to do a little research on this lady. It appears that she has family ties relating back to the Italian dictator Mussolini. We saw what a wonderful job he did for his country and apparently she’s bringing that rich tradition to the neighborhood of Middleriver Terrace. I urge the residents of Middleriver Terrace to help rid this community of communist, fascist leaders . Don’t stand by and let this lady lower your property values along with her blind pack of rats that follow her.