The proposed site for a Major League Soccer stadium and mall in Miami is far more toxic than previously expected, with arsenic contamination levels reaching more than twice the legal limit and surface-level soil samples containing debris that poses a “physical hazard.”
A new environmental analysis has shed more light on the large extent of the environmental problems in the dirt at Melreese golf course, Miami’s only city-owned golf course and the potential site for a sprawling $1 billion commercial and stadium complex that would serve as the venue for home games played by David Beckham’s MLS team, Inter Miami.
A significant factor that could alter Inter Miami’s future on the 131-acre site: the severity of the pollution underneath the grass. A report by a consultant paints an ugly picture of what lies beneath the golf course — and in some spots, the contamination is right near the surface, as shallow as a half-foot deep. Nearly the entire site is sullied by ash from an old municipal incinerator that was shut down decades ago.
Read more at our news partner the Miami Herald.