Questions remain about chromium leak that has kept Bartram’s Mile Trail shut for nearly a year

A real estate developer presented a slide that sent a murmur through a crowd gathered Thursday night during an update on chromium runoff that prompted closure of Bartram’s Mile Trail for nearly a year.

The slide showed how the soil at Alliance 51st Street LLC’s 12-acre property, a former industrial site in Southwest Philadelphia, is widely contaminated with hexavalent chromium.

However, Eric Carlson, Alliance’s owner, told public meeting attendees in the Richard Allen Preparatory Charter School gym that no further issues have been detected since a July 2024 storm caused runoff that led to the trail’s closure.

Carlson said the company has put controls in place, such as a berm, to prevent runoff. He said a full cleanup and remediation plan for the property, submitted in February to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, is under review.

Carlson said Alliance didn’t cause the contamination but is committed to its remediation.

“We’re not going away; we’re here,” Carlson said immediately after the meeting. “We’re going to continue to monitor the site. We’re vested. We own it. We’re taking responsibility.”

Alliance’s presentation left many in the crowd, including Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, uneasy. Gauthier questioned company officials about the full cleanup of the site being contingent on Alliance finding a tenant.

Carlson told the group that Alliance purchased the site at 51st Street and Botanic Avenue in December 2021 as part of a speculative venture to develop a 165,000-square-foot warehouse. But the market has changed, Carlson said. As of now, he is looking for a tenant before anything is built.

Alliance’s full cleanup plan will be implemented only when the site is developed. That’s because the plan depends on the hard surfaces of the building, parking lots, and other structures to be used as capping to seal the soil in place. The plan also includes a stormwater collection system.

Gauthier repeatedly questioned Alliance’s team about their approach.

“I don’t think it crystallized for me until tonight that their remediation plan is based on whether they find a tenant,” Gauthier said. “Is that workable for the community? There needs to be a remediation plan, and it cannot be dependent on the life sciences market.”

Meanwhile, Maitreyi Roy, executive director of Bartram’s Garden, the oldest surviving botanic garden in North America, said Bartram’s Trail, a 1.5-mile paved path that leads to the garden, would not open until she is assured by the city’s health department that chromium no longer poses a threat.

She is also concerned about possible contaminated water moving underground. She was hopeful the trail could be opened soon.

» READ MORE: Bartram’s Garden closes trail because of ‘potential chemical contamination’ nearby

Chromium was found last summer at four locations on the trail, and Alliance officials told the crowd that chromium was likely widely used in the area as part of fill. The chromium present on Alliance’s property has been there at least 100 years, company officials said.

The company was unaware of that when it purchased the land.

Larry Brunt, an environmental consultant working with Alliance, cautioned that chromium could be in soil outside the company’s property given how often the chemical element was used as fill.

Thursday’s meeting by Alliance was held to update residents on what’s happened after at least two documented runoffs of chromium from the former industrial property last year.

In April 2024, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) first became aware that there might be chromium escaping from the site. City resident Andy Switzer initially reported “a green-colored runoff” from the property, known historically as the 51st Street Terminal.

Following that, the adjacent Bartram’s Garden Trail, on the banks of the Schuylkill in Southwest Philadelphia, was closed in July 2024 when a yellowish runoff containing hexavalent chromium was again found in stormwater runoff from a former industrial site onto the path.

Bartram’s Garden officials closed the trail, calling it “an evolving and potentially dangerous situation” because chromium is a known human carcinogen.

The trail, a segment of the Schuylkill River Trail, runs along the river and is widely used by cyclists, runners, and walkers and as an access route for anglers.​

The property adjacent to a rail bridge has a long history of industrial use and contamination. Once a wetland, it was covered in fill, as was a nearby stream.

The property was used before 1923 by a cabinet manufacturer for lumber storage. Ten aboveground fuel storage tanks were built between 1951 and 1975, and the site has been sold multiple times over the decades.

Alliance purchased it in December 2021 from PBF Logistics. Alliance 51st Street is based at Alliance HP in Bryn Mawr, a real estate investment firm.

The storage tanks have been dismantled, and Alliance enrolled in the DEP’s Act 2 voluntary cleanup program. Alliance says organic compounds and lead are present. Some soil contains volatile organic compounds, semivolatile organic compounds, and lead. Groundwater was found to exceed state limits for benzene and lead.

Tests revealed that water that flowed off the property in 2024 contained chromium and hexavalent chromium, most likely from the fill. Chromium, a byproduct of chrome ore processing, was once used as fill.

DEP officials confirmed that chromium was present in July 2024 at four locations along or off Bartram’s Mile but said the public was not at risk. The trail, however, has remained closed as a precaution.

» READ MORE: Excessive levels of chromium, a toxin, were found along a now-closed part of Bartram’s Mile Trail, tests show

Switzer, who first reported seeing runoff from the Alliance property, questioned officials Thursday night, saying he saw dust escaping the property during work there. Officials said they would ensure that a dust control plan is followed.

Russel Zerbo, an advocate with the Clean Air Council, noted during the meeting that the DEP has listed multiple violations its inspectors found at the site in the wake of the runoffs. Carlson said that the violations have not led to any fines and that he would “ensure that we’re taking care of those actions.”

And resident Emily Goddard said she remains concerned about Alliance’s ability to monitor the site after company officials said they were inspecting for runoff visually after storms.

“Bartram’s Garden is a place I frequently go,” Goddard said, “So it’s concerning that they’re only using visual inspection.”