Lead removal progressing at Naperville park

PAUL MICHNA/PMICHNA@DAILYHERALD.COM, 2009 The shooting range at Sportsman's Park in Naperville will reopen once the remediation process is finished.

The first phase of work to remove lead from the soil at Sportsman's Park near downtown Naperville is on track to be completed by the end of the year, funded partially under a new contract and an updated contract the park board approved Thursday night.

A consulting contract with Shaw Environmental -- the same company that tested soil and water samples to locate lead contamination -- was increased $23,985 and a new engineering services contract with Shaw for $800,500 was approved at Thursday's meeting.

The company has been helping the park district seek a determination from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency that no further remediation is needed to clean up remnants of lead pellets used at the park's three trapshooting ranges until the pellets were banned in 1998.

When the park district receives a no further remediation letter, Sportsman's Park will reopen for public use as a shooting range and for fishing and walking or jogging on trails.

"This now opens that whole area up to the public," said Ray McGury, the park district's executive director, about the park at 735 S. West St.

Lead cleanup is occurring in two phases. The first began earlier this month as Martam Construction started removing traces of lead found outside the park's eastern fence line under a $490,457 contract.

The second phase of cleanup -- focusing on the larger area inside the fence line -- is scheduled to begin next spring and conclude in about a year, McGury said.

The updated consulting contract with Shaw will pay for additional data collection, surveying, permitting and lab testing fees during the first phase as the company works with Illinois EPA representatives to prove lead has been removed from the area outside the fence line, said Eric Shutes, director of planning.

The new $800,500 contract covers engineering services for the first and second phases of cleanup and includes the plans and reports necessary to gain the no further remediation letter.

As contractors work to clean up the soil at Sportsman's Park, the park district is planning to make other improvements to the clubhouse, parking and lighting next spring.

Site improvements are expected to cost $600,000, and Shutes said the park district is seeking grants from the city to help with plans to pave the gravel access road and parking lot, make the clubhouse accessible to people with disabilities and build an accessible shooting station.

"We thought it made sense to include all this work with the remediation work that will be going on next year," Shutes said.