ISC plans Daytona upgrades, but pollution a concern

UPDATE International Speedway Corp. has alerted its shareholders that soil contamination could delay its proposed Daytona Live! office-entertainment complex. The precise nature of the pollution at the Speedplex office park, 1800 W. International Speedway Blvd., was in dispute.

ISC officials said an environmental team from Lockheed Martin, the previous owner of the 71-acre site, reported last month that four monitoring wells showed signs of a gasoline spill north of the ISC-NASCAR joint office. Lockheed Martin representatives were unavailable for comment.

However, Jeff Prather, a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection, which oversees Lockheed Martin's work at the site, said the agency hadn't receive any information from either the defense contractor or ISC about any gasoline spill. Instead, spokesman Jeff Prather said the agency was continuing to track long-term seepage of industrial solvents into the soil, a problem first discovered in 1993 after a General Electric simulator plant closed.

Prather said the agency met Jan. 9 with Lockheed Martin representatives and they agreed three more monitoring wells should be installed to help measure the depth and width of a "plume" of chlorinated solvents moving underground. They also discussed possible clean-up measures, such as air "sparging" — pumping air into the ground to bond with the solvents in bubbles, which then could be captured and removed.

Prather said the pollution is a concern but it doesn't preclude future construction on the site. ISC has demolished most of the GE buildings in order to start work on a new corporate headquarters, plus a hotel, movie theater and other facilities. Daytona Beach News Journal

12/14/07 ISC has budgeted about $100 million for construction projects at several tracks, including money to add a second rooftop observation deck on the garage in Daytona's Fan Zone area. It also has allocated $15 million to start work on Daytona Live, a proposed office-retail-entertainment park to replace the existing Speedplex park north of the track.

The city Planning Board meets at 6 p.m. today at City Hall and will consider a site plan for the park's first building, a joint headquarters for ISC and the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. News Journal Online