Yakima School District To Clean Up Contaminated Soil At Kiwanis Park
Kiwanis Park
Yakima School District says it is taking responsibility for some contaminated dirt it sold to Yakima Parks and Recreation.
School officials say the district sold excess dirt to Yakima Parks and Recreation from the construction site at Eisenhower High School.
The dirt was used as fill at Kiwanis Park, in an area away from the baseball fields.
School officials say an inspector from the city later found low to medium levels of lead and arsenic, from which the school district then began developing plans to recover the dirt.
One school official, who is out of town at the moment, says the contaminated soil that ended up at Kiwanis Park was a mistake.
"Whenever we dig new areas, we either treat it or remove it. And so, it's the same process that we've been using, this just inadvertently slipped out of our control," says Yakima School District Construction Planning Principal Jim Wright.
Wright says the soil contamination levels are not a threat to the public.