Specialty Consulting, a Chicago engineering firm that is the environmental consultant for the Ability Park site’s cleanup, stated that the current remediation plan follows state regulations. Arturo Saenz, CEO and project manager, previously oversaw environmental services for the Crawford coal plant project. According to Free Spirit Media , during a Chicago City Council meeting on March 1, 2019, Saenz praised Hilco, the owner of the Crawford plant, for choosing GSG Consultants — where he was a principal at the time — to work on the demolition.

The coal plant faced public backlash after a botched smokestack implosion in Little Village resulted in widespread dust exposure. Hilco agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by Little Village residents for $12.25 million, but the company did not admit any wrongdoing.

Saenz did not respond to a request for comment.

The park will be constructed by Terra Engineering, with design input from the disability service organization United Cerebral Palsy Seguin of Greater Chicago and the Special Education departments of Cicero School Districts 201 and 99.

According to the remediation action plan for the park project, arsenic levels will be managed through a combination of hotspot removal and contaminant averaging, rather than complete removal.

The remediation plan concerns experts like Gray, who pointed out the risks associated with contaminant averaging.

“What I’m concerned about is that [consultants] are taking individual concentration measurements and then averaging across the site,” Gray said. “My concern is that when you average something, it removes high values [of] contaminants.”

Contaminated groundwater also won’t be removed. Restrictions, including a ban on new wells and town rules that prevent its use for drinking, will limit exposure to harmful substances like vinyl chloride and lead.

However, heavy rains could raise groundwater levels and overwhelm the sewer system, spreading existing contaminants.

“If the groundwater is pretty shallow and this is an area that’s subject to any flooding or ponding, you can get a release of that groundwater into surface water exposure,” Gray said. “That would be the concern.”

During the site investigation, groundwater was found between 9.9 and 15.8 feet below the surface, confirming it is shallow and could rise during floods.

“We often get a lot of surface flooding, and if there’s contaminated soil, flooding moves it around,” Packman said. “It’s something we can’t easily avoid.”

Cicero Independiente was unable to obtain cleanup and design plans from Specialty Consulting for the site, originally referred to as Inclusion Park. When reporters contacted the firm for details on the remediation plan, a representative said the project wasn’t on file, even though construction was already in the planning stages.

In addition, the Town of Cicero did not respond to requests for comment regarding park clean up and construction planning.