Re: Contaminated soil...

**a*@aol.com**

Friends,

It's ironic - river deltas, the Nile, the Missisippi delta used to be enriched by the alluvial deposits left by flooding. It's taken man, and modern civilization, with all if its industrial chemicals to turn this glorious natural soil amendment into an ecological disaster. 

That said...

In all practicality, knowing the extraordinary volume of needs any gardener folks in the Katrina flooded areas will have, the priorities seem to be soil testing, soil amendments and garden tools. UMass is still the cheapest, on a "milk-and-cookies," community garden basis to finance with gardeners collecting samples and sending them in. 

When our Katrina flooded brothers and sisters look to plant again, we'll have to be there to hip them to UMASS after the Agricultural extension folks from their states more-or-less clear them to even think of planting. And we'll have to pass the hat, send some tools and maybe even head down to advise and help, it that's whats wanted or needed. 

Until then, it's prayer for them and hoping we're not next. Manhattan's last hurricaine was in 1938. We're due....

Everbest, 
Adam Honigman
Volunteer Clinton Community Garden

-----Original Message-----
From: Lenny Librizzi <plantlot@rcn.com>
To: Amanda M. Edmonds <amandamedmonds@gmail.com>; community_garden@mallorn.com
Sent: Wed, 21 Sep 2005 16:12:21 -0400
Subject: Re: [cg] Contaminated soil...

I don't think we have ever had a situation like this where a city was underwater (and parts still are) for weeks. The water was contaminated with sewage, petroleum products, industrial chemicals, salt from the sea and probably stuuf we don't know about yet. Once the water is removed some of that stuff will remain in the soil. I can't imagine that soil being safe for vegetable gardening and it might be hazardous just to be working in. 
It will be a fertile ground for the remediation scientists. Maybe earthworms might be one of the solutions. I just read an interesting book, The Earth Moved : On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms, by Amy Stewart and she writes about worms being used in some remediations including removing the odor from biosolids (dried sewage sludge. Should we be sending worms from our compost piles to help start the soil healing process? 

Lenny Librizzi 

 On Wed, 21 Sep 2005 13:27:34 -0400, Amanda M. Edmonds <amandamedmonds@gmail.com> wrote: 

> I agree, Dorene et al, about needing to figure out about soil readiness 
> and contamination. 
> 
> Has anyone ever seen studies/datas/stories about soil issues 
> post-flooding or post-storms? Clearly, there's huge potential for 
> contamination in the most urban areas... I wonder what the case is for 
> less urban places that mostly got the big water surge from the storm, 
> but didn't sustain flooding? I'm looking into some of the research 
> journals and extension bulletins to see what has been said-- but this 
> is definitely not my area of expertise. Who else on this list has 
> ideas around this? 
> 
> And, I'll re-pose the question as to what role people think ACGA as a 
> bi-national network of gardeners can best play in addition to 
> supporting food security relief efforts of Second Harvest, et al? 
> Potentially finding support (financial/donated/etc) for soil testing 
> for some of these communities could be an idea, so that as people 
> rebuild it can be in healthy conditions... I know that we often feel 
> cash strapped to do the heavy metal and more advanced soil tests here-- 
> I could only imagine people in communities needing to rebuild from 
> scratch may not be able to prioritize that sort of diagnostics. Or, 
> should we try to garner more support for the efforts of Don and others 
> in Dallas-- and areas closer to the affected region who are working to 
> grow more fresh food for the relief effort? Don, KUDOS to you and your 
> community for digging in so quickly and providing such nutritious food 
> for the communities down there. How best could we from elsewhere 
> support what you're doing? 
> 
> Amanda 
> 
> Amanda Maria Edmonds > Executive Director, Growing Hope 
> amanda@growinghope.net 
> 734.330.7576 
> 
> "We must be the change we wish to see in the world." 
> "To forget to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget 
> ourselves." 
> -Mahatma Ghandi 
> 
> 
> 
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______________________________________________________ 
The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org 

To post an e-mail to the list: community_garden@mallorn.com 

To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: https://secure.mallorn.com/mailman/listinfo/community_garden 

______________________________________________________
The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org

To post an e-mail to the list:  community_garden@mallorn.com

To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription:  https://secure.mallorn.com/mailman/listinfo/community_garden