JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The city of Jacksonville is rolling out plans to clean up Lonnie C. Miller Park in Northwest Jacksonville.
It was once used as a dump site for the city’s incinerators and decades later, hazardous waste remains next to where children play.
“The City of Jacksonville is finally doing what it promised to do after consolidation, which is to fix these contaminated lands that are located on the Northwest side,” resident Vanessa Cullins Hopkins said.
The city held an open house Thursday night at the Legends Center at 5130 Soutel Dr. to discuss the cleanup.
In a fenced-off area in the park, a posted sign states that the area is contaminated by potentially hazardous ash.
More than 100 years ago, the city would burn its trash and dump the ashes there.
That went on through the 1960s but ended as people became more sensitive to potential environmental concerns.
The city says the contaminated soil is not harmful to people who live or work around the park, but cleaning it up entirely will help alleviate any possible health risks or concerns that might come up.
“When we clean it up, we’re basically removing what’s called the direct contact interval,” Solid Waste environmental engineering manager Jeff Forster said. “That’s the zero to two feet below grade, so nobody would be able to touch it or play with it.”
That cleanup is also a part of a broader initiative, called “Project New Ground,” an effort to make Jacksonville cleaner and more beautiful.
The upgrades include tennis courts, pickleball courts and athletic fields. Cullins Hopkins said the extra amenities would be a great asset to the area.
“I’m very happy that through our mayor’s leadership, we are moving in the direction of more healthy lifestyles for people on the northside. We have tended to have been discriminated against on the northside. We’ve been red-lined here on the northside. And so this is, this is a great improvement, looking forward to it,” she said.
The cleanup of the eastern part of Lonnie C. Miller Park started in November and is scheduled to take one year to complete.
The city says the goal is to get the contaminated ash site cleaned up by the summer of 2025.
