Officials in Grand Traverse County have closed Kids Cove playground after a test revealed elevated arsenic levels in the soil.
Dave Benda is administrator for Grand Traverse County. He says the park will be closed until they can clean it up.
“It might be as simple as cleaning up, taking out wood chips and putting down new wood chips," Benda says. "Or it might be as complicated as sealing the lumber and taking off inches of soil.”
Benda says officials with the state Department of Environmental Quality will recommend how to remove the arsenic soon.
“Until we find out what the DEQ recommends for remediation, we aren’t going to open it," Benda says. "Once we find that out, it depends obviously on how much it would cost to remediate.”
The county is not required to close the park because the arsenic levels are still below the state maximum – but state officials recommended closing Kids Cove anyway.
Benda says the county got the results last week but waited until Wednesday morning to close the park. He expects state officials to let them know what to do next by the end of the week.