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Resident urges pause on proposed Anderson water park, cites Superfund health risks
Summary
A resident told the Anderson City Council that a proposed water-park project intersects a federally designated Superfund corridor and urged the council to pause approvals until independent environmental and health risk reviews are completed and disclosed.
Nicole Kapushinski, a combat veteran and Anderson resident, told the City Council during public comment that the city’s proposal to build a water park “adjacent to an unremediated superfund site” poses potential health risks and should be paused pending independent study.
Kapushinski said the site lies within what she described as the MPL Superfund corridor along the White River and that the public has not been provided a recreational-exposure–appropriate environmental risk assessment or impact statement. “The city proposal to build a water park adjacent to an unremediated superfund site…is reckless,” she said, and asked the council to require an independent environmental review, full public disclosure of remediation responsibilities, long-term monitoring plans and a cumulative-impact analysis that accounts for legacy contamination and groundwater migration.
She told council members that families and children—“populations that are especially vulnerable to environmental toxins”—require the highest level of scrutiny for water-intensive recreational projects. Kapushinski said she has provided documents to federal agencies and would share materials with the council and staff.
The speaker cited prior local testing and community concerns about PFAS and other contaminants in drinking water but did not present a formal technical study at the meeting. She requested a city pause on any further approvals until the questions she raised are addressed and called for clearer mapping of Superfund boundaries near the proposed project.
Council members thanked Kapushinski for her comments and directed her to leave a concise summary and contact information with the clerk so staff and the city attorney could follow up. The council did not take any immediate action on the project during the meeting; council discussion and staff follow-up were promised.
