Test Results Show Arsenic Presence at Imagination Station in Brighton

Traces of arsenic - a chemical element known to cause cancer -  have been found on wood playground equipment and soil at Brighton's Imagination Station, city officials confirmed in a press release today.

The report does indicate that the traces found on the wood was "within the expected range" for lumber treated with Chromated Copper Arsenate.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, CCA is a preservative that contains arsenic and other chemicals and was used to treat almost all lumber used outdoors until 2004, which is the year that the EPA phased out its use by. 

The samples of surface mulch, which the report states is the "most likely for direct contact," is "well below the state threshold."

But the soil samples taken from six inches below the surface of the site near contained "elevated concentrations of arsenic."

The report recommended "continued closure of the facility" built in 1995. Both the press release and test results are included as PDF attachments with this article above.

The testing is a result of what City Manager Dana Foster said was a review of the content and quality of the playground's materials. The park , and on Thursday the . 

The possibility of arsenic at the playground first came up when a group of concerned city officials, business owners and residents addressed the city with their concerns about the iconic playground in the heart of downtown being in disrepair. They have been pushing for rebuilding and remodeling.

Other parks have not been tested.

Foster said the next steps will be to have the city engineer (Tetra Tech) conduct a meeting with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to determine a plan of action "with regards to the arsenic levels in the playground," according to the press release.

Foster said a more formal report will be made available to the City Council and the public at the Aug. 18 City Council meeting at 7:30 p.m. at . Foster said the report "will address what actions have already occurred and what the next planned action steps are."

According to the Safe Playgrounds Project, a website that provides information on arsenic and CCA, arsenic-laced wood is not harmful if the wood is treated with an oil-based deck stain on a yearly basis. The city has not responded to multiple inquiries from Patch about the regularity of the treatments of the Imagination Station.

On Aug. 10, the same day that the city closed the park for maintenance repairs, the report from Tetra Tech stated that the city received different test results of soil samples from Mark Sweatman of the Brighton Rotary Club dated Aug. 1. Tetra Tech stated in the report that "we have no knowledge of how the samples were obtained nor from what depth of the soil, so a direct comparison to the city's results is not possible." 

Sweatman's test results for the concentration of arsenic in the wood were lower than the city's reported results, but his soil results appeared much higher than the city's, according to the report.

The volunteers commissioned Sweatman to do a preliminary test of the playground's arsenic levels.

Piet Lindhout, who is heading the group, said on Wednesday that Sweatman's test was just an informal test that would prompt the city to seek a more professional test.

Stick with Patch with more follow-up on this developing story.