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HEALING SICK SOILSSubmitted by Norm Roulet on Mon, 12/08/2008 - 10:29.
12/16/2008 - 13:00 12/16/2008 - 15:00 Etc/GMT-5 Current Research on Soil Remediation Technologies Dr. Basta will present timely information on his current research into inexpensive and effective ways to treat lead and other contaminants in the soil. Utilizing these techniques could prove to be a powerful tool in dealing with Cleveland's Lead Crisis. Please forward this invite to others whom you feel would benefit. basta [dot] 4 [at] osu [dot] edu">Dr. Nicholas Basta Located on 306 acres in Cleveland's industrial heart, Ohio & Erie Canal Reservation offers unique opportunities for discovery. The complicated relationships between people, industry and nature are explored through indoor exhibits and interpretive programming at the Leonard Krieger CanalWay Center. CanalWay Center serves as a visitor center on the busy Towpath Trail that runs from Ohio & Erie canal Reservation to Akron. Map I look forward to seeing you there! Brad Brad Charles Melzer Program Assistant - Community Gardening Ohio State University Extension Cuyahoga County 9127 Miles Ave. Cleveland, OH 44105 216-429-8246 office 216-429-3146 fax melzer [dot] 2 [at] osu [dot] edu
Location
CanalWay Center
4524 E.49th St.
Cleveland , OH 44125 United States
Phone:
216-429-8224
See map: Google Maps
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soil testing - fixing the lead
This was a fascinating talk! I will post the powerpoint and notes when they become available, but here are some interesting take aways.
Lead that gets into the blood must be bioavailable
Lead in the soil can be "fixed" made not bioavilable with a small (specific) amount of hydroxyapatite or phosphate or bone meal. Artist, Mel Chin is using this method in New Orleans. For the sceintists among us here is the report on the research from OSU (pdf).
Phytoremediation is a slow many years process and is less effective than fixing the lead, though cover crops might be pleasant to look at and would halt erosion. Most plants whose edible parts are far from the stem (like beans or berries) do not actually transmit the lead to the consumer's blood stream. It is leafy plants like lettuces (they test with romaine mostly) where bioavailable lead is readily digestible.
For a normal sized lot in the city that needs cleaning the cost of removing soil is around $60,000 - too expensive (they scrape off the top layer of soil and then backfill with clean topsoil) - yikes! And what do they do with that lead contaiminated soil?
Basta said that the parts per million can be reduced to what he called "acceptable risk" levels with phosphate and then usually some sort of cover is applied - they may even be able to use river dredge to cover the lots (Jim White of Cuyahoga River Rap is going to speak further with him about this. Imagine! We might not need a new CDF (combined diposal facility) in our lakefront!
This is good news (potentially) for Cleveland sick soils...
That's the brief report... more later.
update to sick soils
Dr. Basta replied to my request for the power point slides that he used with his talk at CanalWay back in December. I have attached that power point and a couple other PDFs of interest to the original post. (please scroll up)
The bottom line: We may be able to bind the lead in our soils to achieve a remediation effect (reducing the lead's bioavailability to an acceptable risk) and cap the lots with Cuyahoga River dredge which could also eliminate the need for a new Confined Disposal Facility on the lakefront.It could be a win win or triple play for lead soil remediation and river navigability and lakefront planning.
Dr. Basta says he would be very interested in working with GCLAC and Kurtz Brothers (who have reputedly made topsoil from Cuyahoga River dredge) and others in NEO to do some test plots in Cleveland. It seems he may just be awaiting an invitation.
dont forget chicken poop
supposedly it too binds the lead into a phosphate.
I don't get it - so they are
I don't get it - so they are saying that you can't resell children's clothes after 2/10/09 -well, what are thery going to do about hand-me-downs - a lot of families, especially large families, hand clothes down from one child to another. Where does that leave them? I personally don't buy it. Sounds like a load of crap to me. Is there really lead in childrens clothes? Or is it just another way the government has of doing something stupid, like always?
CPSC Clarifies Requirements
CPSC Clarifies Requirements of New Children’s Product Safety Laws Taking Effect in February
Guidance Intended for Resellers of Children’s Products, Thrift and Consignment Stores
"The new safety law does not require resellers to test children’s products in inventory for compliance with the lead limit before they are sold. However, resellers cannot sell children’s products that exceed the lead limit and therefore should avoid products that are likely to have lead content, unless they have testing or other information to indicate the products being sold have less than the new limit. Those resellers that do sell products in violation of the new limits could face civil and/or criminal penalties."
More info at the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act website under What's New
oh wELL!
thats better - that makes absolutely NO sense... i went to the site - it still isnt clear.
The way I read it - they dont have to test their inventory (big deal - do you have any idea how many children's items Unique Thrift gets in and out every day - this means absolutely nothing other than they dont have to throw away what's already there)
BUT (or as they phrase it "however")
If they sell an item that ends up testing for lead, they face stiff penalties. So - they're not forcing them to test, but if caught they get stiff penalties?
This really isnt fair, so many people (especially non-privileged) depend on resale for children's items. That is how we furnished our entire nursery and toddler rooms. We were very careful what we selected. i bet there isnt a single source of lead in the rooms. Were we to have bought everything retail, we couldnt have done it.
this is going to stimulate to retail economy - (I wonder how hard they lobbied for this bill?) but hurt families.
a made in usa link:
http://www.stillmadeinusa.com/