St. Albert’s minor baseball fields are safe for users.
The city tested all the fields at Legion Memorial Ball Park for hydrocarbons and found that the soil is within accepted guidelines.
“Although there were several detections of hydrocarbons, all samples were below provincial and federal contamination guidelines,” states a report shared with city council Monday.
The environment office plans no further work in this area, the report states.
The issue of soil contamination at the ball diamonds stems from an incident last July when a St. Albert Minor Baseball volunteer burned diesel fuel and gasoline to dry out the mosquito field after a rain.
The incident resulted in the diamond being closed for the rest of the season. In September city council agreed to spend up to $30,000 to repair the diamond. The city hired environmental engineering firm EBA, which removed about 38 tonnes of contaminated material and completed 30 soil tests to confirm that all the contamination was removed, said a city report.
The firm refilled the excavated areas with clean clay fill and the city completed the remediation in October using staff, contractors and minor baseball volunteers.
The city tested the other three diamonds in November, finding traces of diesel and gasoline, but these were within accepted guidelines, said city manager Bill Holtby.
The remediation of the mosquito field cost $19,840 while the additional testing of the other fields cost $14,350.
The St. Albert Minor Baseball Association leases the diamonds from the city and maintains them. Mayor Nolan Crouse wondered whether the city needs to amend its agreement with the association but city staff felt it was unnecessary.
“The [baseball] organization certainly learned from this circumstance and have taken it very seriously,” Holtby said.
The baseball association is well aware of other options for dealing with wet fields, said environmental manager Leah Jackson.
