Traverse City Playground Closes After Arsenic Found

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) - A Grand Traverse County playground is closed after test results showed elevated arsenic levels in its soil.

More than 2,000 community members helped build the Kid's Kove playground at the Civic Center 18 years ago, but it hasn't been properly maintained in recent years, the Traverse City Record-Eagle reported.

Deborah Nesbit was on the committee in charge of building the structure and said the problem was preventable.

"Perhaps what needs to be stated publicly is that there would not have been an arsenic problem had this park been maintained correctly," she said Wednesday at a county commission meeting. "Which means that it needed to be sealed every single year from the year it was built."

Sealant or stains can been applied to chromated copper arsenate-treated wood, which is a material used at Kid's Kove, to prevent exposure to chemicals like arsenic, according to federal Consumer Product Safety Commission. A manual written by the firm that build Kid's Kove also suggests annual applications of sealant and the creation of a "friends of the park" group to raise maintenance funds.

County officials last applied a sealant to the Traverse City playground in 2008. Officials at the meeting said they didn't know why it hadn't been treated since.

County Administrator Dave Benda said blame shouldn't be placed on a specific individual.

"At best it's an error of omission instead of an error of commission," he said. "It's not like somebody purposely stopped doing it."

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