JERSEY CITY -- A group of residents in Jersey City's Ward F wants a new park in their neighborhood, but only if it's a clean one.

Despite assurances from the city and state that the site for the 17-acre Berry Lane Park currently under construction along Garfield Avenue has been fully remediated, some in the Bergen-Lafayette neighborhood are concerned that a hazardous amount of chromium still lingers in the work area.

"We would love to see a park where kids could have fun and play," said Severn Willis, a member of the Garfield Randolph Arlington Carteret Ocean Avenue Community Organization. "But we want a clean and healthy park."

Union Street resident RJ Harper, one of the leading activists against the continued construction of the park, says the city and the company tasked with the environmental cleanup, PPG Industries, has left a substantial amount of chromium in the notoriously contaminated area.

However, both PPG and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection deny that claim and say that the land on which the park is being built upon has been completely remediated and no longer suffers from chromium pollution.

Prior to starting construction on the park, the PPG performed a nine-month, $10 million remediation project that removed 210 cubic yards of tires, 1.2 million gallons of contaminated groundwater and 49,000 tons of chromium.

Yet, Harper doesn't believe the cleanup was substantial enough.

"A cleanup of this magnitude should last several years," said Harper.

Roughly 10 people met earlier this month across from the park on Union Street to discuss the matter and share their concerns regarding Berry Lane Park. Many of them feel the chromium pollution still poses a threat to the long term health for the ward's youth that will spending the most time there.

But the city, like PPG and the DEP, refuted Harper and his group's concerns.

"Berry Lane Park has been recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection as a model of brownfield to greenfield site, with both agencies investing millions of dollars into the development of the park," said city spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill. "Neither of these agencies would be supporting this development if they were not 100 percent sure it is safe for everyone to use as a park and recreational facility."

The rift between the community activists and the city goes beyond the construction of the park, as they were notified the day of their meeting that they were prohibited from using the Bethune Center on Martin Luther King Drive. Meetings for that district have frequently been at the community center, and Harper believes the city intentionally barred them from holding their meeting there.

"It's a bit of a blessing because now we are realizing that people we thought were on our side, are really not on our side," said Harper.

However, Morrill said the flier used to attract attention to the meeting, "contained defamatory language and was not in line with the initial request they made for use of the center," which was the reason for the cancellation.

The flier's headline was, "Berry Lane Park: Exposed," and included an image of Uncle Sam with the caption, "Shame on you."

Construction of the park is ongoing and is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

"Our point is that the cleanup could have been done better," said Harper. "People need to be aware and make sure a kids park is not built on a toxic dump site."