Little Leaguers want fields to stay in play
League president: New soil report should negate Santa Clara County's eviction orders
After 50 years of youth baseball, the Eastridge Little League has only 14 days left to say goodbye to its fields next to Reid-Hillview Airport. The county is forcing the league to abandon its three diamonds, claiming lead contamination in the area presents a danger to the kids.
But a new study has thrown the county a curveball — the soil may not be so contaminated after all.
Four months after county officials instructed the league to vacate the fields, a county-commissioned study released last week found no elevated levels of the contaminant in the airport's soil.
“We want our fields back,” said Eastridge Little League President Johnny Cisneros,
who has been involved with the league for decades. “That's all we want.”
Now, he's planning on challenging the county's reasoning for kicking the Little Leaguers
off the fields. Cisneros said the league also is rejecting a county offer that would grant the league up to $225,000 over three years to make up for their lost fields. The proposal doesn't include any long-term relocation plans, something Cisneros said is key to keeping the league alive. And the temporary field options being floated by the county, he claims, are insufficient.
District 3 Supervisor Cindy Chavez, the top candidate in the San Jose mayor's race, said negotiations are ongoing but remained steadfast in her belief that the league needs to leave the fields.
The battle between Cisneros and the county has spurred members of East San Jose's community to link arms with the Little League.
Angela Tirado, a community organizer and longtime former vice president of the Little League, is joining forces with Cisneros. The league, she said, serves as a crucial pillar for Latino youth in a community that is less affluent than nearby
neighborhoods and cities.
“The whole thing about baseball is getting them off the street, teaching them discipline and respect,” she said.
Cisneros' argument with the county is part of a wider, decades-long battle over the impending closure of Reid-Hillview Airport, with advocates claiming the site is a health hazard and could be used for badly needed housing while opponents say the risks are overblown and the housing push is really just a land grab for developers.
In 2018, the Board of Supervisors voted to stop providing federal grants to Reid-Hillview, which will ensure the airport's closure by 2031. In August, the county released a report that concluded children in the direct vicinity of Reid-Hillview have elevated levels of lead in their blood.
Single-piston aircraft which are dominant at Reid-Hillview still run largely on leaded fuel.
In February, with the August lead study in hand, county officials told the league it had to leave the fields, which it leases from the county, by June 28.
But the newly released lead study, which examined soil samples at various spots within Reid-Hillview's boundaries, complicates the county's reasoning for forcing the Little League to relocate. The study found that there were no soil samples that contained lead which exceeded local, state or federal danger thresholds.
The new soil study found that the highest concentration of lead — 46.7 milligrams per kilogram — was at the corner of Cunningham Avenue and Capitol Expressway, which is also the location of the baseball fields. The upper limits of local, state and federal lead exposure start at 50 and go up to 800 milligrams per kilogram. However, according to an interview with an exposure expert who reviewed the soil results, the new findings don't necessarily refute the August airborne study, since the investigations are measuring how lead settles in different ways.
“I think that there is still a risk,” said Chavez. “Because the (August) study that we are using to assess the health of the children recognizes that lead fuel in aviation is aerosolized. And so it is being ingested by young people, probably adults as well, who are proximate to the airport.”
She added that she viewed the soil study's findings as a positive development. “It means that property will be safe to use in the future for activities beyond an airport,” she said.
When asked to respond to Cisneros' refusal to budge on the county's demands and monetary offer, Chavez said that she and the county would continue to try to find a resolution. A spokesperson for the county declined to comment.
But some Little League parents say they remain skeptical about just how dangerous the baseball fields are for their kids.
For Vanessa Martinez, whose 11- and 14-year-old sons are part of the Eastridge Little League, she remains skeptical at just how dangerous the baseball fields are.
“As long as the airport is there, there is always going to be lead,” said Martinez, who grew up across the street from the airport baseball fields. “Is there a study that shows that children, parents or the elderly have been affected by it? Why was it such an urgency to close these fields down?”
Martinez said she supports the Eastridge Little League president's rejection of the county's demands and said, like others, that baseball is what keeps the area's youth on the straight and narrow.
“It's a home for these kids,” she said. “What do they have going for them when you take away their home?”