Skate Park's Fate Awaits Test Results

It's Friday afternoon, and two Berkeley skaters are scaling a fence, blatantly ignoring the signs that tell them to "stay out" of the skate park they know and love. They came to skate, and they're not going to let contaminated water or fences keep them out.

The city of Berkeley closed Harrison Park two days after Christmas, when groundwater polluted with a carcinogenic chemical seeped into the bowls of the skate park thanks to a nearby chrome-plating facility.

Still, some skaters continue to frequent the West Berkeley park. They are not worried about police or getting "contaminated," although many admit they do not know the risks of skating there.

The water contained hexavalent chromium, the cancer-causing agent made famous in the movie "Erin Brockovich." Concentrations of the chemical ranged from 120 parts to 320 parts per billion-two to seven times the state safety standards for drinking water.

"If it's in the groundwater, that's probably not a main concern," says Allan Hirsch, a spokesperson for the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. "But it's a very toxic air carcinogen. The main concern (with hexavalent chromium) is that it does not become airborne."

The city hired toxicologists to analyze the possible health risks posed by the contaminated water, says Lisa Caronna, director of the city Parks, Recreation and Waterfront Department.

"We are not sure that it's unsafe," she says. "We just wanted to be overly safe-if there is (risk), we're not going to let people in there."

The toxicologists' results should be in within two weeks, but until then, the park remains closed.

Berkeley planned to open the skate park in 2000, but it was delayed because hexavalent chromium was detected in the groundwater. The park finally opened in September 2002 after a cleanup and structural redesign to prevent groundwater from getting into the skate bowls.

Better late than never, the skaters says.

The skate park's opening was greeted with great enthusiasm, and many skaters say it is one of the best in the Bay Area.

But now, just five months after the long-awaited skate park opening, Berkeley's skaters are once again out of luck.

"We all worked really hard for this skate park, and we hope that we will be fortunate enough to use it in the future," says skater Jonah Most, 13. "From what I've heard, (the contamination) doesn't sound like a big deal."

Since the closure, some skaters have taken to the street.

"One of the main reasons the city wanted to open the park was that skaters were skating on everything on the street," says skater Daniel Holtmann-Rice, 16. "They're going to keep doing that now."

Kate Obenour, who was a member of Friends of a Berkeley Skatepark, a group of skaters and parents that spearheaded the push to create the park, says there were no other viable locations for it.

"They're not going to drink the water, and skaters don't skate through water because it totally trashes the bearings," Obenour, the mother of a skater, says. "The skate park is a huge benefit for the skaters around here."

City officials are not sure what they will do if toxicologists determine the park is not safe.

"There might be some quick fixes, there might not," Caronna says. "(The solution) might be remediating the (entire hexavalent chromium) plume or dealing with the immediate area of the skate park."

But any solution would take a bite out of the city's already strained budget, on top of the $500,000 initial price tag and additional chemical clean-up expenses the park has already cost the city, Caronna says.

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