BIDDEFORD — About 200 feet northeast of the intersection of York and Laconia streets, between the Mill at Saco Falls and the North Dam Mill, a piece of land formerly used by Central Maine Power to store electrical transformers slopes harshly toward the western bank of the Saco River.

Currently, the city-owned property is “overgrown with vegetation and unusable,” Rip Patten, an environmental engineer with Westbrook-based Credere Associates, said at the April 7 City Council meeting ”“ but not for long. In a matter of months, the roughly 1/3-acre parcel of land will house a public park, amphitheater and river overlook as part of the growing Biddeford RiverWalk trail system.

Credere is in the midst of finalizing the draft plans for the project, which is slated to start in the summer and wrap up by the fall. It’s expected to cost about $280,000, according to documents provided by the city, and will be largely paid for by federal grant money.

In 2013, the Environmental Protection Agency awarded the city a $200,000 grant for the project; the money came through the EPA’s Brownfields Program, which funds the cleanup of sites contaminated with hazardous materials. A couple of years earlier, a Maine Department of Environmental Protection assessment found elevated levels of arsenic and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, on the property.

According to EPA.gov, PAHs have been shown to cause tumors, reproductive problems, and damage to skin, bodily fluids and the immune system in laboratory animals. However, these effects have not been observed in humans, the website clarifies.

After the DEP assessment, Patten said his company considered doing three things with the property abutting the river: Do nothing; remove all the contaminated soil; or “do a soil cover system” ”“ in other words, bury the contaminants. Credere, who previously worked with the city in assessing the contamination of the former Maine Energy Recovery Company site at 3 Lincoln St., settled on the latter, he said.

“We’re putting a marker layer ”“ a geotextile fabric ”“ over the contaminated soil that is there, and then basically constructing the overlook and amphitheater right over that,” said Patten. “So, actually, the amphitheater … is part of the cleanup and is an eligible expense under the cleanup grant.”

The DEP is on board with the chosen cleanup method as well.

“From our perspective, the chosen cleanup at this site represents the best value for the project, the best way to deal with any issues or risks that might be posed by the soils,” Nick Hodgkins, of the state’s Brownfields Program, said at last week’s council meeting. “We’re certainly in agreement and concur with the proposed remedy.”

Since the property will be turned into a public park, the community will benefit “by having access to the (RiverWalk) trail, greater access to the river, and more options for pedestrian and bike transportation through the city,” documents provided by the city state. Furthermore, construction activities related to the project are expected to have little impact on residents “based on the relatively secluded and inaccessible location of the site.”

In an email Monday, Jennie Franceschi, the city’s planning engineer, said the amphitheater will include five to seven rows of seating and be made of granite. It’s “meant to be a very flexible space,” she said, where people can sit, have lunch and enjoy the view.

“The Falls has been a major focal point that we wanted to share with the public,” said Franceschi.

— Staff Writer Angelo J. Verzoni can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 329 or averzoni@journaltribune.com.