The proposed Esplanade project on Pittsburgh's North Shore is one of the city's most highly anticipated upcoming development projects, spanning 15 acres of waterfront property and costing an estimated $740 million to complete.

However, a group of local residents known as Manchester Neighbors held a press conference on Thursday, announcing the release of a 95-page report on the organization's website that assesses environmental conditions and historical resources in the Chateau neighborhood, where the development plan is based. They say their report uncovers a wide range of concerns, including heavy pollution in the area's soil.

According to the report, Manchester Neighbors issued Freedom of Information Act requests to acquire three separate environmental reports from 2002, 2004 and 2018 that revealed the proposed development site is heavily polluted with 58 different hazardous compounds.

"This report today bears witness to yet another missed opportunity, a failure to value authentic community input and the lack of mutual transparency," says Stanley A. Lowe, the group's founder and a member of the board.

Lowe says the organization's mission is to provide education to the neighborhood to keep them informed about what's going on.

"There has been no neighborhood benefits plan," said Lowe. "There has been no neighborhood needs assessment. There has been not a written document, not one document that says: 'How will this affect the neighborhood?' What about us? What about the neighborhood? What about the commitments we need to make sure we're there?"

Dan Holland, a postdoctoral researcher in the Center for African-American Studies and the Economy at Carnegie Mellon University, has been working on the report of their findings throughout the summer, which found 58 different hazardous wastes in the soil in Chateau.

"Many of these are carcinogenic," said Holland. "In fact, the report specifies the soil has to be carefully remediated and taken to a waste disposal site, probably with hazmat suits."

Holland also mentioned a concern about flood risk, given the low elevation of the land along the banks of the Ohio River.

"We're actually at about river level right now, maybe slightly higher," said Holland. "But, in the last hundred years, there have been over 40 floods that have risen much higher than where we're at right now."

Lowe says both local officials and Piatt Companies have not shared this information with residents, and neighbors were holding signs saying "You didn't tell the whole story! The land is poison beneath our feet!"

"When you look at this site and you remember the Piatt Companies coming to the community, did they bother to tell us about the garbage, the toxicity that's down here?" he asked. "No. They never once raised that."

Piatt Companies told KDKA-TV in a statement: "The Commonwealth [of Pennsylvania] has approved the redevelopment of the site from an environmental risk perspective. We are confident that no health or environmental problems will result from the proposed development."

"From the developer's point of view, from the city's point of view, from the county's point of view, from everybody's point of view, this project makes sense, even with the toxicity down here," said Lowe. "From the neighborhood's point of view, this borders on insanity."