CHARLESTOWN — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposes to remove 830 cubic yards of contaminated soil, at a projected cost of $426,938, from a site within Charlestown’s former Naval Auxiliary Landing Field — today home to Ninigret Park.

The soil would be removed from an area about 200 feet east of Little Ninigret Pond, between greenway numbers 3 and 15 of the park’s disc golf course, from where five 25,000-gallon underground storage tanks reportedly used to store leaded, high octane aviation gasoline had been previously removed.

The area, known as site 8 and located some 1,500 feet from residential areas, was formerly used for flight-line fueling operations in the early 1940s.

The contamination is not believed to pose immediate risks.

In communications with the town, the state Department of Environmental Management and the Army Corps of Engineers “minimized any likelihood of exposure to toxic components by the general public,” said Alan Arsenault, the town Public Works’ director.

The public comment period on the study and the preferred remedy runs through Oct. 9.

The remediation work is expected to commence in mid- to late-October and run for six weeks, through November.

The Naval Auxiliary Landing Field, today home to the town’s Ninigret Park and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services’ Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge, served as a pilot and flight crew training facility during World War II and later as a support facility to Quonsent Naval Base in North Kingstown. It closed in 1970.

The town is developing a master plan to develop Ninigret Park, home to the town’s senior citizens center, a playground, the Frosty Drew Observatory and Nature Center, baseball and soccer fields, walking paths, a bicycle racing course, and tennis courts. Several popular festivals and activities are also held annually at the park.

The latest study of site 8 — one of the areas into which the former landing field was divided to facilitate study of contamination linked to its past military use — found contamination of petroleum products in the form of light non-aqueous phase liquid (accumulations of free product, less dense than water, in the groundwater) and dissolved constitutens in the soil and groundwater, primarily in the western portion of the site.

Samples from two monitoring wells showed lead concentrations of 16.6 micrograms per liter.

The latest report also found surface sediment contamination at Little Nini Pond, “likely the result of decades of use as a storm water retention basin.”

The pond is used seasonally by the town Parks and Recreation Department for freshwater swimming and fishing programs.

As part of the contaminated soil remediation, engineers weighed four options:

• Take no action.

• Excavate the site.

• A multiphase extraction of contaminated material.

• An in-site chemical oxidation.

They recommended excavation and off-site treatment of some 830 cubic yards of contaminated soil to bring it into compliance with DEM’s alternative cleanup standard of 1,000 milligrams per kilogram.

To comply with the DEM’s most restrictive criteria for such contamination, 500 milligrams per kilogram, engineers would have to remove 1,554 cubic yards of soil, at an estimated cost of $610,338.

A copy of the documents is available at the Cross’ Mills Public Library. For questions or comments, call Barbara Newman of the Army Corps of Engineers, New England District, at (978) 318-8515.

marmenta@projo.com