Crego Park, Lansing’s largest park, is more than 200 acres east of Aurelius Road between Interstate 496 and Mt. Hope Avenue, but it has been closed for more than 20 years.
In 1986, 200 drums of paint sludge and other toxic waste were found at the park, making it unfit for human occupation. About one-third of the park was contaminated with PCBs, lead, zinc, and xylenes, the remains of the John Bean Company who "used the area to demonstrate fire-fighting equipment and agricultural chemical sprayers."
FMC Corp. of Philadelphia (formerly John Bean Company) agreed to spend $8 million to clean up the mess. Although 43,000 tons of soil were removed in 1994, it was reported that the cost of remediating the forested flood plain area "would be astronomical." Arsenic was present in park soils at levels that exceeded Michigan’s default risk-based cleanup level for industrial property (6.6 mg/kg). The bioavailability of arsenic in soils was evaluated relative to arsenic in water, which was the exposure medium in the studies that form the basis for the toxicity values used by the State of Michigan to set cleanup levels. The results indicated that arsenic in Crego Park soil was less than one-tenth as bioavailable as arsenic dissolved in water, and the Michigan DEQ accepted a relative absorption factor of 0.1. This site-specific factor was used to derive an alternative cleanup level of 66 mg/kg, 10 times higher than the value initially requested by the Michigan DEQ. This change in acceptable cleanup goals resulted in Michigan DEQ agreeing that no more soil excavation would be required at the site. The remediation was subsequently curtailed, and the site was returned to use as a public park.
In March 2013 the city landed $500,000 in state grant money for reopening Lansing’s largest park. “The park has been OK’d for us to open,” said Parks Director Murdock Jemerson. The goal is to reopen Crego as a “passive park,” which requires low maintenance and offers “quiet water sports” like fishing, canoeing and kayaking, taking advantage of its natural setting. The park development includes a fishing dock on Fidelity Lake and a Lansing River Trail spur.
This cache was placed by a proud supporting member of MiGO.
