After hearing from an engineer hired to review chemical tests at the project site, Kanawha County commissioners on Tuesday gave final approval to build a multi-sport complex at Shawnee Park.
At a special meeting Tuesday morning, Ashok Sanghavi of S&S Engineers told commissioners he has no reservations with the commission's plan to building the sports complex where tests determined there are chemicals.
"Basically our recommendation to you is that since the land use doesn't change -- [it's] basically the same as today with the golf course versus a multi-sport complex, it will be very similar in use," Sanghavi said. "So we have no reservations."
The project will include several turf and grass soccer/lacrosse and baseball/softball fields at the park. That will mean closing the park's golf course. The commission plans for the complex to host several travel tournaments as well as games and practices from local kids' sports teams.
A report released earlier this summer from CH2M Hill says that 1,2-DCA, 1,4-dioxane and naphthalene were found in the shallow groundwater of the park and 1,4-dioxane was found in the deep groundwater at concentrations greater than screening criteria. Chloroform was also detected in the soil gas, or the vapor in the air spaces between soil particles. Chloroform was not found in the property's groundwater of the park, the report says.
Additional testing done at the request of the commission indicated that the chloroform indicate concentrations decrease radially in all directions from the maximum detected location in the soil vapor, or the vapor in the air spaces between soil particles. The chemical was not detected in an ambient air sample at the park.
Dow Chemical agreed to fund the chemical tests and an "independent consultant's evaluation" at Shawnee Regional Park after West Virginia State University sued the company alleging that decades of chemical manufacturing at the Institute plant contaminated the groundwater beneath its campus.
Sanghavi said he will design a type of barrier to keep the contaminates in the ground contained.
Commission President Kent Carper said the commission will not close the golf course until it absolutely has to in order to start construction on the project.
Adam Krason of ZMM Architects and Engineers, which is designing the project, said bids would likely be accepted on the project starting in October.
Reach Lori Kersey at lori.kersey@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1240 or follow @LoriKerseyWV on Twitter.