permaculture

[Neil Bertrando <neilbertrando@gmail.com>]

some thoughts...

i agree id of the contaminants is an important part of the process.  call
around to university, extension, farmers, developers, city and county
planners to get info on where to test for accuracy and affordability.  they
can also give you details on how to test (see comment on soil profile
below) to get the info you need for site assessment.

there are many experts in bioremediation and you can also get books from
your local university library or through inter-library loan that will
provide you with more detail on various remediation scenarios.  (if you are
in USA, i don't know how the details work in other countries).

If the soils have high levels of heavy metals, please consider the exposure
pathways: ingestion, inhalation, and dermal/skin contact.  these are toxin
specific.  most heavy metals can be toxic through inhalation and ingestion.
 i.e. hand to mouth, churning dust, etc.  If you know what you have, then
you can plan for safety.

Ask around about previous land use, contamination of nearby areas,
development criteria, etc.  If others locally have dealt with the same
issue, they may share valuable info.  For example, what is the gradient of
contaminant concentration along the soil depth profile.  if it's only the
first inch, you can deal with it, if it's through 5 feet, that's a
completely different scenario.

I personally recommend taking a step back and examining your goals and
options in light of your site context.  You state community garden as your
goal.


   - You can grow vegetables safely by following the raised bed, imported
   soil method.
   - You can also consider a hydroponic or aquaponic setup to grow
   soil-less veggies and fish.  this could be a starting point to generate
   soil through vermiculture a la the  Growing Power example
   http://www.growingpower.org/
   - You can start a nursery with imported soils to generate income and
   support veggie gardening at other sites,
   - You can grow useful plant materials that will not be used for food,
   such as timber, basketry, polewood, etc. and use the site as a community
   meeting / park space
   - You can look at the soil texture and consider it's utility as a
   building material and encase the metals, maybe earth bricks a la open
   source ecology http://opensourceecology.org/, or filling sand bags or
   other containers (55 gallon steel drums?) to create structures, retaining
   walls, sunken gardens...

I imagine a lot of options if you step outside the food arena to general
social needs.  Perhaps the site would be best encased in a concrete slab
and used as a water collection and thermal mass surface?  I don't know.
 much of the actual decision making will depend on your climate and social
context which shape your opportunities and limitations / edges.

I would put this in the category of 'next best use' assessment and
emphasize the least effort / change for greatest effect principle.  not
every square foot of open space needs to be used to grow food, although in
cities this is a pressing need.  there are other needs that may be a better
match for a brown field.

I think that the Rhizome Collective and Permacultureists in Austin, Texas
worked with a similar situation. you might want to contact them.
http://www.rhizomecollective.org/

You face a challenging, but not uncommon scenario that is likely to be a
pattern template of the 'Great Retrofit' for industrial society.

towards an ecological society,
Neil

On Wed, Nov 2, 2011 at 7:54 PM, Jerome Rigot <jfrigot@gmail.com> wrote:

> 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
> >
> >
> _______________________________________________
> 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
>
>