Park board approves Union Pacific lease for groundwater treatment building near Murdoch site

The Wichita Park and Recreation Board on April 1 recommended approval of a lease that would allow Union Pacific Railroad and its contractors to install a groundwater treatment building and related extraction wells — described in meeting materials as Transect F — on park commission property south of Murdoch Street.

The board’s recommendation, which passed after a motion to approve “the lease agreement for Transect F as proposed by UPRR and any lease substantially similar to what’s been described,” clears the way for Union Pacific to relocate and expand part of an existing treatment system to a park-owned parcel. The board’s action was a recommendation to advance the lease to the city council and to the city’s lease-negotiation process; the final lease remains subject to city approvals.

Union Pacific and its contractor presented the project as part of a remedial design/remedial action (RD/RA) for a site where tests identified trichloroethylene (TCE) and other volatile organic compounds in shallow soil and groundwater. An unnamed Cadiz visual…