permaculture

[Jerome Rigot <jfrigot@gmail.com>]

Hi Katy,

As Rob said, the primary thing is to identify the contaminant. If it is an
organic (diesel and other fuels, pesticides/herbicides, PCBs, others) there
are several approaches that can be tried such as using mushrooms a la
Stamets to degrade the pollutants.
For the heavy metals, using hyperaccumulator plants are an options,
constructing raised beds as Lawrence suggested, and one thing to keep in
mind is that addition of compost will make the heavy metal (such as lead)
much less bioavailable. Basically, the lead will become bound to some of
the humic compounds and exposure danger will be greatly increased.

But whatever the strategy you need to consider will be determined by the
contaminant(s) present in your soil. So, a soil test is a pre-requisite
test at this point.

Jerome

On Wed, Nov 2, 2011 at 9:10 PM, Rob Crook <crookkohler@bellsouth.net> wrote:

> Lawrence,
>
> It may be possible to phytoremediate the site using plants. The success of
> this approach would depend on the contaminant that you are trying to remove
> and how long of a time the community is willing to work planting plants
> that
> they will not directly use. The plants if they had a high level of the
> contaminant in them would have to be disposed of carefully and it may even
> be necessary to develop a management plan for how they will be disposed of.
>
> This kind of a program would have to be built into the grant that is
> supporting the creation of the community garden. It may be possible if this
> is shown to be a problem across a wide area and a great number of gardens
> that a foundation, or other granting agency, would be willing to dedicate
> some funds to this specific purpose.
>
> Give me a call anytime if you want to discuss further.
>
> Rob Crook
> Carrboro
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: permaculture-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
> [mailto:permaculture-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Lawrence F.
> London, Jr.
> Sent: Wednesday, November 02, 2011 5:54 PM
> To: permaculture
> Subject: Re: [permaculture] question on soil regeneration
>
> On 11/2/2011 5:14 PM, Katy Fox wrote:
> > Dear all,
> >
> >
> > I hope you are well. I am writing because I have a recurrent question
> > at this moment, kind of related to some of the permaculture designs
> > I've been doing. We've been looking at community garden sites, and
> > there are some industrial wastelands that are kind of on offer. So I
> > wondered whether you have any experience with working with these
> > kinds of polluted lands and how you'd go about dealing with them. Can
> > you depollute them if they have heavy metals? are there any people
> > dealing with that specifically that you know? (I know some people
> > from Findhorn who are working to clean waters through biomimicry
> > processes - Biomatrix - but none who work with soil regeneration in
> > heavily polluted sites). where do you recommend I start my research
> > in this area? Metta katy
>
> If the soil on these urban sites contain more than acceptable levels of
> persistent pesticides (any category esp. herbicide) or heavy metals I
> would imagine outside help might be required in dealing with them.
> Cleanup funding through grants or fundraisers to pay some professional
> hazmat/remediation company or pro bono work by one of those. I am sure
> many urban gardens have had to deal with this problem. You absolutely do
> not want plant uptake or hyperaccumulation of toxic substances; not to
> take any chances with this.
>
> I have some old archives, not state of the art on hyperaccumulation and
> bioremediation - maybe some of this will be helpful:
>
> Bioremediation
> http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech/orgfarm/bioremediation/
> a partial list of files in this archive:
> http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech/orgfarm/bioremed
> Hyperaccumulation
> http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech/orgfarm/hyperaccumulation/
>
>
> <>....<>
>
> Another solution, if on site soil can not be used and you can build
> containers for raised bed gardens. Get donations of multiple truckloads
> of quarry rock dusts, add compost, manure, mineral amendments (donation
> too maybe: rock phosphate, greensand, azomite, aragonite, hi cal lime,
> seaweed, blood meal, dried chicken manure - i.e. all the Fertrell
> products). Quarry rock dust is EPA regulated as to environmental quality
> and is essentially siltation pond fines. It is nearly always given away
> to those who will haul it. You can hire a trucker to pick it up and the
> quarry will load their trucks for free; negotiate on price per load
> hauling fee. Best to buy tandem loads though triaxle loads are more cost
> effective, or dump trailer (36+/- cu. yds) if you have flat stable
> ground for them to offload on. This rock powder will probably be much
> better soil than what you have on site though you could have black gold
> if you are lucky. If building raised beds on top of polluted soil then
> be sure to put an impermeable barrier between your brought in rock dust
> or topsoil from off site and existing ground.
>
> I have some farm-based experience with all of this so if I can help
> further I will be glad to.
>
> LL
> lfljvenaura@gmail.com
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> permaculture mailing list
> permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> Subscribe, unsubscribe, change your user configuration or find out more
> about this list here:
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture
> Garden Hand Tool Sourcelist and Biointensive Gardening Guide
> http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech/documents/gardening-hand-tools.faq
> permaculture forums http://www.permies.com/permaculture-forums
> Market Farming Mailing List
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/marketfarming
>
> _______________________________________________
> permaculture mailing list
> permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> Subscribe, unsubscribe, change your user configuration or find out more
> about this list here:
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture
> Garden Hand Tool Sourcelist and Biointensive Gardening Guide
> http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech/documents/gardening-hand-tools.faq
> permaculture forums http://www.permies.com/permaculture-forums
> Market Farming Mailing List
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/marketfarming
>
>