by Yuliya Panfil

Spring break is here but neighborhood kids won’t get to play at the Park View Recreation Center playground, affectionately referred to as “ladybug playground” for the squat colorful statues that dot its center. That’s because the playground is closed for lead remediation, for the second time in two years.

On April 10 the DC Department of General Services (DGS) notified the community that routine testing had again uncovered unacceptable lead areas at the playground, located at 693 Otis Place NW. The playground had previously been treated in February of 2023 for lead contamination.

Playground lead contamination is unfortunately not uncommon across DC, but the fact that this playground has tested positive twice in two years, combined with the fact that the water fountains tested positive for lead in 2016 and do not appear to have been tested since, has neighborhood residents irate.

Parents from adjacent Bruce Monroe Elementary School, which regularly uses the playground, have organized a petition in hopes of finding a durable solution.

“I was shocked to learn we have a recurring lead problem in our playground,” wrote Miles Duffy, one of the parents organizing the petition, in an email. “Lead is so toxic and dangerous, especially for little kids health. My daughter is in pre-K. The band aid approach of using a power washer clearly didn’t work.”

Another of the petition’s organizers, Vic Edgerton, said that when DGS found lead at the playground in 2023, they never determined where the lead had come from. It could have settled from nearby construction, from a historic building on the property, from the playground’s deteriorating poured in place (PIP) surface, or from the shredded used tires that form the floor of the park’s workout area.

Edgerton said DGS power washed the area but never adequately retested to see if the remediation had worked. In fact, he said, if the lead had come from the workout area surface, then power washing would have just “made a huge mess and probably spread the lead around everywhere.”

The petition calls for the city to determine which of these sources is actually causing the lead contamination and remediate accordingly.

DGS spokesperson Brittany Hughes could not be reached for comment.

Ward 1 Councilmember Breanne Nadeau wrote in an email that “…any time we find lead in a space used by children, it’s alarming, but it’s exactly why we do the testing.”

“The poured in place play surfaces tend to get all the runoff that includes lead found in paint and soil,” Neadeau wrote. “The good news is that power washing does address it thankfully.”

The lead petition also requests “draft plans, timelines, and reasons for delays” for a planned $14.5 million renovation of the Park View Recreation Center.

Slide from DPR presentation on the Park View Rec Center renovation (image courtesy of DPR)

The renovation is currently out for bid, but no concrete plans or renovation scope have been presented yet to the community. The city has been non-committal over whether the rec center’s swimming pool, one of only two dedicated children’s swimming pools in the city, would survive the renovation.

Neighborhood residents will have two opportunities to voice their concerns next week:

On April 16th, DGS is holding a virtual meeting specifically to field questions about lead remediation at Park View Rec.
On April 17th, DC Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) is holding an virtual update meeting on Ward 1 and 2 capital projects, including the Park View Recreation Center renovation.

Edgerton said DGS needs to ensure the lead issue at Park View rec is solved once and for all.

“There’s no reason that these exposures have to persist as long as they have,” he said. “Once they are daylighted by the community they should be addressed. Actually, they should be addressed beforehand. It shouldn’t take someone in the community with a background in environmental epidemiology and neurological diseases to make sure the right thing is done. That's why we have DGS.”