Cannonball cleanup...

[elzoller]

following Sandie's post about cannonball,

Skyline
....We went to hit the Cannonball Trail at the soccer field and found it decidedly roped off and fenced in with multiple closed signs at every entry.😕 I figured they meant it. Maybe they're planning another toxic clean up? It would be a real shame if they've found that field toxic after years of kids playing on it. ....
.

I received an email with a link confirming the clean up at cannonball down by the soccer field http://rigidnsingle.blogspot.com/ (a couple of pics there)

I hope they clean it up by the time I am ready to ride again 😀

I have been riding here for the 8 years, actually this is where I started mountain biking. I never heard of such a thing....and to think my bright glowing yellow pee was excess vitamins 🙄

 

[Cyclopath]

Sigh...
That's what I was afraid of. DuPont's practices have left a line of toxic sludge throughout the town and the entire area. It has to be more than ten years since they dredged and cleaned a stream that ran through the town that kids used to play in. The stream became suspect when an unusually high(off the charts) number of kids living in the area got lukemia.

They cleaned the stream, but the stream leads to Pompton Lake which probably has a lesser ppb concentration because, you know, it's much bigger than the stream. 🙄 That's never been fully dredged and I'm not sure it can be without causing huge problems elsewhere.

My dad refers to the lake as Pollution Pond since it was nasty when he was a kid way back in the day when business dumped at whim. There have been signs posted for years along that lake that basically say in spanish, "Don't eat the fish, they're poisoned". But you know they still do. There are always families making a day of fishing along the shores.

Way, way before they posted signs or even cared, I remember catching my first fish there. My dad took me out on his boat with a couple of his friends for a night fishing trip. That was really a big deal. I caught a huge, slimy, nasty black catfish and though we might buy catfish at the fish market, we threw mine back. So, I guess it must have been pretty bad then too. Anyway, that lake is a dammed off portion of the Passaic river which goes through many of your towns too. Don't think that you're perfectly safe either.

Zoller, we know many other ways to get you in there. But you may never get back out. Muwahahahaha!

 

[BiknBen]

I worked for O'Brien and Gere and actually spent time on the DuPont site accessing the environmental issues. It is an interesting tale. Animal fat was used as a machine lubricant during the WWII era. The expired lube was disposed of in small ponds on the site. At that time, no one understood that these things would leach into the ground and contaminate the drinking water. What seems like common sense today was not understood back then. When I was on the site, ground water samples smelled like lard. 😛uke:

DuPont has been involved in the cleanup for decades. Nearly ten years ago, a system was put in place to pump contaminated groundwater from under the site, clean it, and then let it filter back into the ground. Those wells near the soccer field are part of the cleanup and monitoring. The field is as clean as your back yard.

I'm not involved in the current construction but it is likely just another phase of the cleanup process.

 

[lou_b_83]

This has my interest. I would love to know more about what is going on.

 

[pixychick]

The Park is aware of this. The hiking and biking community are working on a solution to safley re-open the trail. The Canonball will most likely be re-routed. Park approval pending. I'll try to get a full report up soon. Thanks for obeying signs.

p.s. please use access from Pool Hollow Rd just a few miles north. There should be a small dirt pull out for parking. From there it should be a short climb up to the 287 bridge.

 

[lou_b_83]

Does anyone know if this is still closed??

 

[Norm]

I have no idea, but when you add the expressions "trail closed", "superfund", and "reroute" I'm guessing that it's not going to open anytime soon. Hopefully I'm wrong.

 

[lou_b_83]

Still Closed

 

[soundz]

are they building dirt jumps there?

 

[Red Mosquito]

are they building dirt jumps there?

I heard from my uncle's best friend's nephew's girlfriend's stepfather that it was going to be an awesome pump track

 

[liong71er]

i rode thru here yesterday(it's open only for me😀) and saw motorcross track there along canonball trails.then meet two lost soul at skyline side.

 

[liong71er]

rode here on 11/29/09 sunday by soccer field.it look like they(dupont) finished working here. altho the gate still locked. but no more big giant hole or sign of activity or heavy equipment.