OCEANSIDE -- A newly released study of a Little League park that was closed because of contaminated soil identifies a host of health risks at the site and recommends covering some areas with soil and concrete before players are allowed to return.

Download the report

The city closed French Field in 2005 because it suspected the remnants of a defunct county dump had fouled soil in the area.

Oceanside, Vista and San Diego County then hired a consulting firm, Tetra Tech Inc., to evaluate the risks to human health and suggest a cleanup plan.

The three agencies are involved in the project because, decades ago, the Vista Sanitary District owned the property, and from 1944 to 1967, leased it to the county for trash disposal. The land is now in the city of Oceanside.

Tetra Tech's report was finished July 2 and posted on the state Department of Toxic Substances Control's Web site this week.

The highly technical document provides the most comprehensive picture to date of contamination at the site, which is in an industrial area near Oceanside Boulevard and North Melrose Drive.

Testing conducted at the park and on property owned by an adjacent recycling company revealed 58 "chemicals of potential concern," including arsenic and lead, which Tetra Tech screened for health risks, the report states.

For the parking area and property owned by the adjacent recycling business, "all health risk estimates exceed acceptable levels," the report states.

On the ball fields and on the nearby slope, noncarcinogenic hazards and risks from exposure to lead are low, the report states.

Exposure to some chemicals in those areas may have a non-negligible cancer risk, but it's at a level deemed acceptable by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the report states.

Officials said the levels of contamination were not a surprise.

"Nothing came out of right field," Todd Lovell, Tetra Tech's project manager, said in an interview this week. "Nothing that we didn't expect."

Before the park can reopen, the report recommends:

- covering the three baseball diamonds with one foot of soil to prevent exposure to low levels of lead and exposed landfill debris;

- paving the parking lot and covering the nearby banks of Loma Alta Creek with concrete;

- paving the slope between the ball fields;

- removing contaminated soil at an adjacent recycling business due to past spills and extending a concrete cap to cover its entire operation.

It remains unclear when the repairs will take place or who will bear the cost.

Vista, Oceanside, San Diego County and the recycling business sued each other several years ago to figure out how the costs will be divvied up. That case is still pending.

William Snyder, an attorney for Oceanside, told the North County Times last year that the repairs could run between $1 million and $2 million. But this week, he declined to estimate.

"I really don't know what it's going to cost at this point," he said.

As for when Little League will be allowed to return, "we certainly hope to be ready to go by the 2010 season," Snyder said.

The parents and players of Vista American Little League have been anxiously awaiting the reopening of their home field.

The league played out its 2005 season at Vista's Breeze Hill Park. It then moved to John Landes Park in Oceanside, where it remains today.

League president Jason Estenson said Friday he was skeptical about a 2010 reopening of French Field, which has been decimated by vandals and weeds.

"Realistically, I don't see it happening," he said. But at least the consultant's report is progress, he added. "I'm glad its moving."

Contact staff writer Craig TenBroeck at (760) 901-4062 or ctenbroeck@nctimes.com.