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Report On Beckham Stadium Site Shows Soil Contaminated By Unsafe Levels Of Arsenic

Miami Freedom Park
This week, the team behind Miami Freedom Park released this new artist rendering of the proposed redevelopment of Melreese golf course.

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.

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