RE: our own garden

H* A*

Joanne:
Off the top of my head,  no vegetable gardening for the forseeable future,
only raised bed and container gardening, only flowers, shrubs decorative
plantings.  I don't think having kids garden there is a good idea at all
because of the potential toxicity problems. It is possible to clean up some
sites through extensive composting and soil amendments, but you need real
professional advice. It might end up that you walk away from this one.
Pollution of this sort can be a tar baby that you should avoid.

But first:

Take soil samples from all around the plot and send them to you local
agricultural extension. This will help you know if your upper levels are
badly polluted. Contact both your local and Federal EPA to see if the former
owners of the site are liable for cleaning it up. Do a state and federal
freedom of information act search for information on this site for
litigation, it might even be a superfund site! Also, find out if there has
been any seepage into adjacent plots, or god forbid, the water supply.
Because of liability issues, I'd suggest that you contact the nearest large
University with a law school, explain to their environmental studies and law
professors who are teaching environmental law what your plans are, and ask
them if they could advise you on a pro-bono basis.

I'd be sure  contact the American Community Gardening association
http://communitygarden.org , the Trust for Public Land
http://www.igc.apc.org/tpl  and check out all their links

My concerns are exposure to gardeners of toxic chemicals, chemical seepage
problems, exposure to litigation caused by gardening in a toxic waste site.

I'd suggest you think hard before you dig.

Adam

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Joanne M. Wolan [SMTP:jmwolan@uakron.edu]
> Sent:	Wednesday, February 09, 2000 11:38 AM
> To:	community_garden@mallorn.com
> Subject:	[cg] our own garden
> 
> Hello, I am involved with a community organization which has the
> opportunity to develop a plot of green space into a garden.  The only
> trouble is, the site used to house a gas station, and we have yet to
> hear from the EPA on contamination levels.  So, our group has bounced
> around a few ideas, made a few plans, but haven't come to any
> decisions.  The favorite idea involves builing around a large item of
> some sort (someone suggested a trubuchet (catapult)), but we are having
> difficulty bringing ideas to the table.  Anyone have suggestions?
> Thanks,
> Joanne
> joskunk@yahoo.com
> 
> 
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