Toxic dump cleaned up, to a point
Some question whether arsenal site is safe yet
It should be good news for environmentalists. After nearly two decades of cleanup and testing by the federal government, a former dumping ground for radioactive waste may soon become athletic fields or walking paths.
The property, an 11-acre parcel on Greenough Boulevard between Grove Street and the Arsenal Street bridge, once housed drums of depleted uranium produced by the Watertown Arsenal's nuclear reactor, which was used for research from 1946 to 1967. The land has been off-limits to the public ever since.
Some local activists question whether the US Army Corps of Engineers, which has been conducting the decontamination, has been sufficiently thorough.
''We are very concerned" that ''the Army just wants to get rid of the land," said Ernesta Kraczkiewicz, who is on an advisory board for the cleanup. ''The Army is definitely not going to do any more cleanup."
The Corps of Engineers intends to turn over the land to the state Department of Conservation and Recreation in September, said spokesman Larry Rosenberg.
Susan Falkoff, who cochairs the advisory board and heads Watertown Citizens for Environmental Safety, said that after the military stopped dumping hazardous waste at the site, the land was further contaminated by chemicals and lead from a firing range and equipment stored there. Polluted water from nearby Sawin's Pond also seeped into the area, said Falkoff, who has been involved in the $100 million arsenal cleanup since the 1980s.
A public meeting will be held Tuesday night at Town Hall to discuss the property's future.
Falkoff said the Army Corps had determined the land is now clean enough for athletic fields, but not safe enough for young children to play on. She argues it should be safe for everyone, since young children would probably use the land to watch the soccer or lacrosse games of their siblings.
''The corps says, 'It's clean enough,' and the DCR is saying, 'It's good enough for us,' " Falkoff said. ''It seems like they're not concerned with public safety or public use."
Rosenberg said the Corps of Engineers is ''obligated by law" only to clean up the land for use as an industrial site, not for recreational or residential purposes. ''It's not the highest standard," he said.
The goal of the Army Corps is to leave the land in a condition so that it can be used for whatever purpose the town, the state, and the federal government agree on, Rosenberg said.
''We will listen to the concerns and respond to the concerns; together, we'll find the right solution," said Rosenberg, adding that the final decision ''may not make everybody happy."
Kraczkiewicz and Falkoff said they're also concerned that Buckingham, Browne & Nichols, a private school in Cambridge, will offer to pay the state to create athletic fields there in exchange for preferential access.
Though she doesn't object to the land being converted to playing fields, Kraczkiewicz suggested that the private school's heavy demand for field time would limit access for others.
Richard Corsi, a DCR project manager, said that while there has been talk of using it for athletic fields, no decision has been made.
''We don't allow preferential access" to public land, said Joe O'Keefe, chief of staff at the state's Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, which oversees the DCR. ''We are not allowed to enter into such agreements and wouldn't. Everyone would have an equal opportunity to use that parkland."
Christina Pazzanese can be reached by e-mail at cpazzanese@globe.com. 