Great Kills Park Environmental Cleanup Project

Great Kills Park is located on the south shore of Staten Island.  Approximately half of the park is currently closed to the public due to an ongoing investigation of radium contamination found at the park.

NPS PHOTO

 

Radium Found at Great Kills Park

Small sources of radium have been found in discrete areas at Great Kills Park. These radium sources, found buried more than a foot below the ground surface, have been removed. Additional areas exhibiting above-background radiation readings have been identified within the footprint of the historic landfill at Great Kills Park. A two-page fact sheet highlights what has been found and what the park is doing and must do to make Great Kills safe once again.

The National Park Service (NPS) is the lead agency pursuing the cleanup of Great Kills Park as prescribed under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). This federal law is commonly called the "Superfund" law.

Background

Great Kills Park is located on the east and south of Great Kills Harbor and on the shoreline of Lower New York Bay on Staten Island. Great Kills Park was established by the New York City Department of Parks. Primary development work was performed between 1934 and 1951. The total land area of Great Kills Park is 488 acres. Of that total, approximately 223 acres are landfill that was created by filling the area's wetlands with "sanitation controlled fill." When the U.S. Congress created Gateway National Recreation Area in 1972, Great Kills Park was transferred to the National Park Service (NPS).

Current Update

The National Park Service is currently working through an Inter-Agency Agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and their contractor Cabrera Services to prepare the work plans necessary to fully investigate and clean up radioactive contamination at Great Kills Park. It is anticipated that fieldwork will begin in August 2012 and will last several months.

 Go to the Community Involvement page to learn more about the project and to sign up for our e-mail list to receive updates. You can download copies of key documents from the Environmental Investigations page.