Kenilworth Park, an area of about 130 acres located right on the border of the Anacostia River. For almost 30 years, this tract of land located in DC’s 7th ward was an open-burn landfill site. The harmful smoke it produced would make its way to the communities that surrounded it, a population mainly made up of BIPOC. The injustice reached a tipping point in the late 1960s, when a young boy named Kelvin Tyrone Mock died after accidently getting trapped in its flames when playing with his friends nearby. After this tragic incident D.C.’s mayor at the time ordered the burning to stop, however dumping continued to be a problem even as recently as the late 1990s.

Shortly after burning was halted, a cap of soil was placed on top of the estimated 4 million tons of raw refuse, incinerator ash, and other burned residue located at the site. Athletic fields currently occupy the northern part of the park while the southern part remains undeveloped. Due to the hazardous nature of what the site was before, it is now classified as a superfund site and as such has been under review process outlined in CERCLA. 

The National Park Service (NPS) is working to create a Proposed Plan for the site, which is open to public comment. The NPS found that that exposure to contaminants in surface soils posed an unacceptable excess lifetime cancer risk (above one in one million) to park visitors, primarily due to arsenic, dieldrin, polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) Aroclors, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs); and that lead exceeded the screening level in select locations in subsurface soil, posing an unacceptable hazard to site workers. Furthermore, there is an unacceptable risk to excavation workers associated with potential for exposure to contaminants in buried waste, methane gas, and the possible presence of buried unexploded ordnance.

There are five options to determine how to clean-up the park, which include (1) No Action, (2) Limited Action/Institutional Controls, (3) Containment/Selective Placement of Clean Soil Barriers & Institutional Controls, (4) Containment/Site-wide Clean Soil Barrier & Institutional Controls, and (5) Removal/Landfill Removal & Shoreline Stabilization. 

Surfrider is advocating for option number 5 to remove waste and restore wetland habitat, but with some caveats. We want to ensure recreational opportunities such as kayaking, hiking, biking, and more and that the National Parks System listens to the local communities that live near the park - for too long they have suffered the impacts of air pollution and should be front and center when developing the restoration plans. 

Please send a message to the National Parks Service supporting option number 5 while ensuring that local communities are heard.