Historically this is the marshy valley of Bassett's Creek. During the 1800s this like many marshlands at the fringes of the developing city it was a garbage dump. Just upstream along the railroad tracks a battery wholesaler, fuel and oil storage facility, car crusher, and who knows what all else was located. this stretch of Bassett's Creek was later confined to a culvert. The Heritage Park site was after being filled with garbage and what all became the site of tenement housing in the early 20th century. The "projects" were begun in the 1930s, and some rudimentary soil correction may have been attempted at that time.
After tearing down the old "projects" the city has spent a fortune attempting soil correction at this site. Meanwhile, during the I394 construction Bassett's Creek's overflow was diverted into a giant storm sewer. This may provide a clue to explain the sudden appearance of the pollutants at this site- perhaps this diversion has dried out the questionable soils under Heritage Park, lowering the water table, and allowing the noted black liquid to flow there?
Whatever the cause, building on this marshy and polluted site was a risky move for the city. Sadly, we may be about to see a second demolition at the "projects".
on solid ground in Hawthorne,
Dyna Sluyter
On Friday, July 18, 2003, at 03:45 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
This weeks Minneapolis Spokesman Recorder newspaper had in it an article written by Mr. Ron Edwards. The lead subject in his article was pollution at the "new" Heritage Park housing project. I was contacted by Mr. Edwards and Mr. Al Flowers regarding this issue before the release of the article. We all meet and toured the location. I was stunned to find black slug bubbling up between the sidewalks, standing black liquid in two of the playgrounds, sinkholes, erosion of landscape, sidewalks pushed up and broken from underneath, poor drainage (elevations) and a rain drainage pond that housed a black liquid with flouting pollutants. All of these locations were openly accessible to the residents and their children that live within feet of them. The stench that we smelled was almost unbearable. Upon leaving the new Heritage Park I developed a migraine headache and the runs.
TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. 2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.)
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