WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — There’s a new update about the soil testing in Riverside Park on Wausau’s Eastside.
The City of Wausau’s Park and Recreation Committee once again discussed the recent soil samples taken in Riverside Park this spring. In early June results from ten new soil samples came back to the city from environmental consultant REI, indicating three areas where there are elevated levels of dioxins.
With the new test results submitted to the DNR, Committee Chair Pat Peckham says the state department is now in the driver’s seat. “They said here’s what you’re going to do. You are responsible for looking further into this and developing a plan to do the next step of testing. And then you will provide that information and we will talk about a plan.”
Recently the DNR had a call with some city officials to discuss the elevated dioxin levels in three of the new soil samples. One of the members of that call was District 3 Alder, Tom Killian. Before being elected to the City Council in April, Killian was one of the main voices of local environmental group Citizens for a Clean Wausau, that advocated for more testing.
Killian told the committee that while on the call with the DNR, the department outlined two things the city needs to do with the tests that exceed the state soil standards. “That the extent of the contamination that was above state standards by the culvert area, that has to be delineated.
“And then once it’s dilineated it did sound like then remedial options will be discussed. That might be excavation with putting in some clean soil in that area.”
While the city waits on more information from the DNR regarding the preliminary tests, Killian thinks the resolution to the issue will help the city in years to come. “It kind of sets a precedent of how we deal with the contamination that exceeds state standards.
“I think this is very positive and ultimately this has done two things. One it satisfies the state standards and two it satisfies the community concerns.”
No decisions needed to be made about the result of the three soil samples at the committee’s meeting on Monday afternoon. The committee will discuss the issue again in August with any additional information on the testing provided by the DNR.
