On May 24th, 2020, I interviewed my father, Timothy Stevens, to learn more about a landscape in our area that’s been renovated quite recently. When the observer first moved to North Stamford(near Scofield Park), the park had a small, flat hill with a playground on top that many kids would go to. There was a very overgrown parking lot with an old industrial building, and the entrance was marked by a wooden sign. A salt-holding building for the roads sat in an even bigger parking lot, and compost piles were right near the area as well. The original park used to have a designated spot for bringing recyclable items, which is where Mr. Stevens would take them, until the cleanup began. The observer doesn’t miss the appearance and condition of the park, since it wasn’t well kept, and eventually posed dangers to those living in the area.

When the observer first moved to the area surrounding Scofield Park, he hadn’t yet realized that the park was previously a dump/landfill. He was later informed that industrial companies used to dump waste in this location, and as a result, the EPA would periodically test soil samples to make sure the area was safe for people to be there. At one point, the samples came back with traces of chemicals and toxins, meaning that the area was no longer safe for public use. Adding to this surprise, at around the same time, residents near the park were complaining of water tests that also showed unsafe levels of toxins. In response to this, environmentalists began looking into the situation more closely, and they were soon concerned about a “toxic brew” that had been formed from all the different chemicals that were exposed to one another. The board of representatives for the city started bringing up possible solutions to fix these problems, and they eventually settled on the idea of “capping” t

In the past, the observer would bring his recyclables to the Scofield Park which was much more convenient than driving to the dump downtown, and he would also occasionally bring his children to the playground to spend time with each other. Since the area has been completely reconstructed, Mr. Stevens isn’t able to do these specific things anymore, but newer features are now available to him. The interviewee explained how a walking path has been installed around the new park, and tennis courts are also accessible to the public. The observer noted that the area looks like a natural piece of land now, and he appreciates that it's pleasant to look at, and is something the people living here can use. Although Mr. Stevens acknowledges and is grateful for the work done on Scofield Park, he still has a concern that the method used to fix the area isn’t entirely thorough. He believes that just covering over the land leaves the possibility that some toxins could still leak out into the water sup