June 13, 2025
Provided Image/DEP
Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection collected soil samples last year from 10 locations along the Bartram's Mile Trail on the map above. Yellow dots indicate concentrations of hexavalent chromium under the 37 mg/kg standard. Red dots represent areas that surpassed that limit.
Bartram's Garden shut down a portion of its paved trail in Southwest Philly nearly a year ago due to the presence of hazardous chemicals, and a cleanup plan has finally been proposed. The state's Department of Environmental Protection is slated to make a decision on the proposal in the coming weeks, but not everyone is satisfied with its terms.
In April 2024, state and city agencies were notified of greenish runoff coming from a property at 1646 South 51st St., which is adjacent to the Bartram's Mile Trail. The soil in the area was tested and hexavalent chromium, a carcinogen, was found.
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For over 100 years, the site has housed various industrial companies — from lumber storage to cardboard container manufacturing to a fuel oil terminal. In December 2021, real estate company Alliance 51st Street LLC purchased the property, which at the time was covered in a random fill mixture that was used to raise the land — a likely source of the chromium.
"While Alliance didn't cause the problem, we are committed to being good stewards of the property," Kevin Feeley, of Bellevue Public Relations, said on behalf of Alliance. "We aren't going anywhere."
Samples collected by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection last summer found elevated levels of contaminants, and Alliance installed erosion and runoff controls to contain the affected area.
DEP officials said there is little risk of exposure to the chemical for park users and the levels found along the trail were not a short-term health hazard, but the agency still advises people to "continue to stay away from the closed area [of trail] in an abundance of caution."
Bartram's Garden has stated it won't reopen the portion of its Mile Trail until they get the green light from the state officials. Some community and environmental activists don't believe the company's cleanup plan will remediate the contamination.
After initial inconsistent communication efforts on behalf of property owners and government officials, Alliance presented its cleanup plan to the community and addressed public comments, which included concerns about the method, timeline and impacts on groundwater.
The plan involves capping the soil to prevent the runoff of chemicals from the site, but the process would only begin after the company leases the property to a tenant.
Alliance has had an approved site plan from the city to redevelop the former industrial site for a speculative warehouse project. So far, no tenant has been found, redevelopment has been paused and cleanup has been delayed, according to a letter from Alliance addressing public comments.
"How can the DEP approve capping the site when the facility has said they're not going to cap the site until they have a tenant?" said Russell Zerbo, an advocate for the Clean Air Council. "Meanwhile, the trail is still closed. What is the process here?"
Feeley said the company is actively marketing the site to prospective tenants to expedite the redevelopment process.
Materials presented at the public meeting showed that groundwater on the site had exceeding levels of contaminants such as benzene and lead.
The company said this would not be further impacted by the redevelopment process, but a report from Urban Engineers came to a different conclusion.
"In our opinion, [the cleanup plan] understates the true extent of the plume and may lead to underassessment of potential exposure risks to adjacent areas such as Bartram's Garden," the report reads.
Alliance wrote in its letter that the software they used to measure potential contamination has "inherent limitations," but insisted that exposure pathways in groundwater are limited.
"Alliance is committed to ensuring plume mapping for groundwater contamination originating on the Alliance property is properly evaluated and addressed," Feeley said.
A DEP representative confirmed that the department will determine if Alliance's proposed design and specifications for a soil cap are "acceptable and protective of human health," with a response deadline set for late June.
"They're not removing any contamination from the site," Zerbo said. "They are not proposing to bring [contaminant levels] to state-level standards. Nothing is going to leave the site. We want to hear what the DEP's decision is. The ball is sort of in their court right now."
