The city posted a sign alerting residents to the cleanup of Lonnie C. Miller Park. | News4Jax
Published on December 19, 2024 at 11:35 am
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The city of Jacksonville is rolling out plans to clean up Lonnie C. Miller Park in Northwest Jacksonville.
It was once used as a dump site for the city’s incinerators and decades later, hazardous waste remains next to where children play.
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The city will have an open house at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the Legends Center, 5130 Soutel Drive, to discuss the cleanup.
In a fenced-off area in the park, a sign states that the area is contaminated by potentially hazardous ash.
More than 100 years ago, the city would burn its trash and dump the ashes there.
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That went on through the 1960s but ended as people became more sensitive to potential environmental concerns.
The city says the contaminated soil is not harmful to people who live or work around the park, but cleaning it up entirely will help alleviate any possible health risks or concerns that might come up.
That cleanup is also a part of a broader initiative, called “Project New Ground,” an effort to make Jacksonville cleaner and more beautiful.
The cleanup of the eastern part of Lonnie C. Miller Park started in November and is scheduled to take one year to complete.
The city says the goal is to get the contaminated ash site cleaned up by the summer of 2025.
This story was produced by News4Jax, a Jacksonville Today news partner.
