Concerns remain, cleanup continues at Bartram’s Garden following contamination

A section of trail at Bartram’s Garden remains closed and some programming is still suspended, about a month after the park’s leaders learned that toxic chemicals had been leaking from an adjacent industrial site.

The John Bartram Association, which runs the 50-acre green oasis in Southwest Philadelphia, says on its website that the Bartram’s Mile Trail will not fully reopen and bike, fishing and boating activities will not move forward “until the contamination is removed from both the landscape and all program equipment.”

Soil testing – conducted by state regulators and an environmental contractor – in recent months has detected hexavalent chromium, a known carcinogen that can impact the respiratory system.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health, in a fact sheet released last month, said it is “unlikely that short-term exposure to chromium at low/moderate levels found in the environment will result in cancer or other severe health effects.”

Since Bartram’s Garden is downstream of the Philadelphia Water Department’s intake centers, the leak never posed a risk to the city’s drinking water, officials have said. Samples taken from the surface of the Schuylkill River also have not tested positive for the chemical.

State officials have said chromium exposure lasting less than a year presents no health hazard, except for children between the ages of 1 and 6 who ingest large amounts of dirt, known as soil pica behavior.

However, Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania found that satellite images from as far back as 2018 showing a yellowish sediment seeping through to the Bartram’s Mile Trail, the Inquirer reported last week.

Bartram’s Garden leaders say they first learned of the possible contamination July 15, after a frequent visitor alerted them to it. The same person had notified the state Department of Environment Protection in April.

Alliance 51st LLC, a firm connected with real estate developer Alliance HP, purchased the former petroleum tank farm in December 2021 with the aim of building warehouse space.

Before the sale, the company did an extensive environmental assessment and did not find chromium, a spokesperson said. The chemical was not detected until April of this year, according to Alliance.

“To be clear, the issue is not the result of any recent spill, but rather a historic issue that was triggered by heavy rains in the area,” company spokesperson Kevin Feeley told Metro.

For 70 years, up until 2021, the property had served as a fuel oil terminal. Alliance purchased the site knowing it needed to be remediated and voluntarily enrolled in a DEP cleanup program, Feeley said.

“Alliance bought the property with the goal of cleaning it up and restoring it to productive use,” he added. “Our commitment to achieving these goals remains unchanged.”

In the weeks since news broke about the contamination, DEP officials have conducted a series of inspections.

Most recently, on Aug. 8, the department cited Alliance for not following an earlier recommendation to place an erosion control blanket to stabilize a large amount of dirt adjacent to the drainage area that had seeped onto the trail.

Alliance, state reports indicate, has recently fixed issues to a filter sock, added rocks to berms designed to prevent runoff and removed sediment from Bartram’s Mile.

During a virtual town hall last month, DEP officials said four of 11 soil samples collected July 22 exceeded residential requirements for chromium. Following remediation efforts, an Alliance contractor conducted testing Aug. 6 and did not find hexavalent chromium.

Going forward, state environmental regulators say they “will continue to closely monitor all activities, conduct regular unannounced inspections, and continue to work with all agency partners and Alliance,” according to a DEP webpage created to provide updates on the situation.