On a recent Friday evening, a handful of Spanish-speaking men played baseball and drank beer at Harris Field, a public park sandwiched between the Bronx High School of Science and Lehman College. They had no clue that parts of the park contained extremely high levels of lead contamination.

Why would they? It is officially closed as a construction site and surrounded by fencing, but is easily accessible due to the fences’ flimsy wiring, which is bent and ripped in several spots. Plus, there are no signs alerting the public of the contamination.

For months, local residents have complained at local community board meetings that people were using the field and that there wasn’t proper signage.

In an e-mail addressing security concerns at Harris Field, Jesslyn Moser, a Parks Department spokes­person said, “We ensure there is public signage that clearly indicates the site is under construction and closed to the public. People are advised to abide by these signs which promote safety.”

The majority of the fence holes have been repaired, but the top of the fence is bent down in areas and the signage hasn’t stopped people from entering the park.

People can be exposed to lead by breathing or swallowing lead dust or by eating lead-contaminated soil.  According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), high levels of lead in the human body can lead to a variety of health problems, especially for children, including damage to the brain and nervous system, slowed development, hearing impairment and headaches.

According to the EPA, public play areas must be mitigated if the soil contains a lead contamination level of 400 parts per million. One area of Harris Field was found to have a level of 1,754 parts per million, according to documents obtained by the Norwood News, with the help of the nonprofit New York City Park Advocates.

The Parks Department said it is complying with State Department of Health (DOH) regulations. Workers dampened the contaminated soil and placed tarps on top of it.

 “As long as the public keeps off the site, there is no immediate danger,” Moser said in a February e-mail.

In October, the Norwood News learned that soil contamination had been found at Harris Field. At the time, the Parks Department was in the middle of construction on an extensive overhaul of the park’s playfields and had not alerted the public.

Since then, construction has stalled as the Parks Department mitigates the contaminated areas, an undertaking that will cost $5.2 million. The price tag on the project is now $13.9 million.

The contamination reports were compiled and completed in mid-October by KAM Consultants, a Long Island City environmental consulting and testing firm.

On Oct. 15, the Norwood News filed a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request for all documentation related to the contamination, which advocates say should have been discovered by the Parks Department well before construction began. It remains unclear when the contamination was first discovered.

It has been more than 130 business days since the Norwood News first filed the FOIL request. On Oct. 22, the Parks Department estimated it would take 60 business days to complete the request. The Parks Department did not respond to several attempts to find out why the documents were not forthcoming. The agency has not provided any other documents related to contamination besides those already obtained by the Norwood News.

Geoffrey Croft, of New York City Park Advocates, said the delays and reluctance to release documentation related to the contamination means the agency “rushed this through without doing their due diligence.” As early as 2004, when studying the area around the Jerome Park Reservoir, the Department of Environmental Protection reported that parts of Harris Field, which is just across the street from the reservoir, contained high levels of lead.

Out of 15 samples taken, 13 contained levels above the federal standards for public play areas and five exceeded contamination levels of more than 1,000 parts per million.

Jeff Kuperman, of the New York Environmental Law and Justice Project, said the highest levels found were alarming. He said the Parks Department should have tested for contamination before starting construction to protect workers at the site. He was incredulous when told the agency had only discovered the contamination when construction was in full-swing.

The fields were initially supposed to be completed before the spring of 2009. In February, Moser said the Parks Department still hoped to have the mitigation completed and the fields open by this spring. Mitigation has yet to begin.

In the meantime, Don Bluestone, the executive director of the Mosholu Montefiore Community Center, said his youth baseball league has suffered because of a lack of facilities. The center’s youth league, which used to play the majority of its games on Harris Field, is down to about 450 participants from a high of more than 1,000.