More trash found at Cheryl Ladd Park site
A new park being built in East El Paso just can’t seem to pick itself out of the dumps.
More than 13,000 tons of trash had previously been removed and now more trash was just found underneath the 6.3 acre Cheryl Ladd Park, located in the 11,000 block of Cheryl Ladd Court, near Trawood and George Dieter Drive.
Ten years ago, it was an illegal dumping site with things like syringes and bottles with poisonous chemicals. Now its just months away from becoming a park for kids to play in, although its completion date has been pushed back yet again.
The latest delay was to remove another 21 tons of trash that was discovered last week. Removal of the previous 13,000 tons of trash caused the contractor to have to stop work on the $1.7 million project a year ago, pushing the original completion date back from Winter 2013 to Winter 2014.
The director of environmental services for the City of El Paso, Ellen Smyth, told ABC-7 Tuesday the latest 21 tons of trash to be discovered is a relatively small amount by comparison. Smyth said the trash found last week would only be enough to fill the trailer of an 18-wheeler.
Unlike previous trash at the site, Smyth said none of the latest trash found is medical waste.
The park, being built with 2012 Quality of Life Bonds, is still on budget at this point. However, instead of being finished by Winter of this year, the completion date has now been pushed back to early 2015.
“In 2005, a concerted effort at the site began,” said Martin Bartlett, spokesman for the City of El Paso’s Engineering and Construction Management Department. “In 2013, when the site was turned over for construction, contractors found even more trash at the site. So there has been a lot of work to get all the trash moved out of this site.”
ABC-7 asked Smyth if she was concerned that more trash could be found on the site.
“There could be more there,” Smyth said, “but it would be deeper and it would be covered up with regular soil by now.”
City Rep. Claudia Ordaz represents the area and said testing will be done before the park is opened to the public.
“(Texas Commissioner on Environmental Quality) is going to do some evaluations of the property, just to make sure that everything is clean,” Ordaz said, “to make sure we’re on track to make it a good park.”
Smyth told ABC-7 the Cheryl Ladd site is one of 16 known unpermitted landfills throughout the County of El Paso, stretching from Anthony all the way to Fabens. She calls them “dumplings” since they’re small former dump sites used in the 1940’s, 1950’s and 1960’s.
Smyth said since they are covered over with dirt now, no one would even know they’re there unless they knew the addresses.
