During an update to soil testing of several Durham parks Monday night, officials said some sections could remain closed off through the end of the year, and longer.
According to a spokesperson for the Durham Parks and Recreation Department (DPR), DPR and the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ) provided details Monday about the ongoing process of assessing five parks in the state’s Pre-Regulatory Landfill program, and potential paths to repair and reopen them.
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"I wanted to hear a plan for when these parks will open," said Janice McCartney, a Durham resident.
Several residents arrived hours before the meeting's 6 p.m. start to learn the fate of East End Park, East Durham Park, Walltown Park, Northgate Park and Lyon Park.
The parks were shut down after a 2022 report from a Duke University student that discovered high levels of lead in the soil at three parks and suspected contamination at two others.
The report didn’t become available publicly until June 2023.
"I wanted to know what effects this contamination had on residents on the Walltown community," said Thomas Long, another Durham resident.
Several of the parks, along with businesses, were built on top of former landfill sites. Several officials in the city have discussed multiple proposals to clean the contaminated parks.
During the 95-minutes meeting, DPR and NCDEQ said it had pinpointed the contamination zones of the parks, and their next step will be focusing on the groundwater.
While no decisions were made on when the parks would reopen, DPR director Wade Walcutt said he wanted to give residents some transparency on the process.
"Today was just another example of our commitment to transparency and communication for the community, and to give everyone an update," Walcott said.
Walcott said determining when the parks will reopen is the biggest question DPR is facing at the moment, but asked residents to remain patient.
"We push the state all the time to make sure they can do whatever analysis and comprehensive studies they can as fast as they can," he said.
NCDEQ said the goal is to have the study finished by the end of 2025, so they can present Durham leaders with options, and a price tag on how to fix it.