[USCC] Contaminated park brings end to community garden plan

[Chaney, Rufus]

Dear Barbara Emeneau:

For the record, there is no valid phytoremediation method for Pb. No
plant takes up enough Pb to remove a little per year unless you add EDTA
to the soil. The cost of the EDTA was >$30,000/A per year. And the
addition of EDTA caused leaching of Pb and other contaminants to
groundwater. No state will permit a phytoremediation project for Pb
using chelating agents such as EDTA.

Pb phytoremediation was a bad idea. No plant naturally accumulates
really high levels of Pb from soils, only from solutions that are
deficient in phosphate and sulfate so that the Pb stays soluble. If a
plant has enough phosphate to grow a good yield, the Pb is trapped in
the roots as a Pb-phosphate compound.

Even though there are recent papers in the peer-reviewed literature on
this topic, if you read carefully you will see that they used the no
phosphate in nutrient solution trick, or failed to understand that a
plant needs to accumulate toward 1% metal or higher to give high annual
removals.

I am the person who invented the idea of phytoextraction of soil metals.
We developed technologies to phytoextract Ni, Co, Cd and Zn using true
hyperaccumulator plants. Our improved cultivars of Alyssum murale
accumulate over 3% Ni in their dry shoots at flowering, and are used in
commercial phytoextraction and phytoremediation.

Regards,

Rufus Chaney
USDA-Agricultural Research Service
Beltsville, MD

-----Original Message-----
From: compost-bounces at mailman.cloudnet.com
[mailto:compost-bounces at mailman.cloudnet.com] On Behalf Of
apismno at aol.com
Sent: Friday, May 01, 2009 11:07 AM
To: compost at mailman.cloudnet.com
Subject: Re: [USCC] Contaminated park brings end to community garden
plan

There are probably phytoremediation choices that can be used for the
lead.? The hydrocarbons might be biodegradable and so getting the pH
,N,P,K, etc into the ranges that promote microbial life might work.?
Then just sow a crop that can be easily checked for Pb.? It could take
several years, but the lead is the more difficult problem to remediate,
yet probably doable for reasonable cost.

It could become a learning center until the lead is diminished.

Barbara Emeneau


-----Original Message-----
From: IMI 360 <focus at netidea.com>
To: U.S. Composting Council listserve <compost at mailman.cloudnet.com>
Sent: Thu, 30 Apr 2009 4:05 pm
Subject: [USCC] Contaminated park brings end to community garden plan



Any info out there about organic remediation of contaminated soil?

Contaminated park brings end to community garden plan

Stanley Avenue Park, in Ottawa's New Edinburgh neighbourhood, was  
fenced off last week after soil tests showed high levels of lead and  
hydrocarbons.

According to the city, the waiting lists for garden plots in most of  
Ottawa's neighbourhoods are two years long.

full story...http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2009/04/30/ 
ottawa-090430-soil-contamination.html


Paul Hughes
Chair, Calgary Food Policy Council
2011 New Growing Spaces in Calgary by 2011
CLUCK: Calgary Liberated Urban Chicken Klub
http://twitter.com/GardenCommunity
c403.383.3420

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Conference & Exhibition in North America for the Composting, Wood Waste,
& Organics Recycling Industry. The Most Comprehensive Program of
Training Courses, Educational & Technical Presentations, and Facility
Tours & "Live" Equipment Demonstrations at the Disney/Reedy Creek
Composting Facility. Conference Highlights & Program, Registration
forms, Exhibitor Information and Sponsorship Opportunities available at
the USCC website www.compostingcouncil.org or call the USCC at
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