From Permacltur@aol.com Mon Apr 12 18:51:19 1999 Date: Mon, 12 Apr 1999 16:57:00 EDT From: Permacltur@aol.com To: fbanks@theriver.com, owner-permaculture@envirolink.org, permaculture@envirolink.org Subject: Re: Lead bioremediation in gardens I am not going to reproduce the long post about bioremediation, in part because it is so long. However I want to point out that cyanide removal is unrelated to the question of heavy metals. Cyanide is an organic compound (HCN) so common that it is found in interstellar gas. It was undoubtedly common in the atmosphere of primordial earth, and HCN energy pathways where the first used by life on this gob of mud and muck covered nickle/iron. It is small wonder that organisms still know how to do it. Even the human body can go into an anerobic phase under stress, for limited periods. Unlike HCN, which needs merely to be taken apart to be detoxified (nothing wrong with hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen individually--togethere with oxygen and bits of this and that they make up protein in our own bodies, after all), well anyway, unlike HCN, heavy metals are elements and not likely to be changed by biological activity, despite far-fetched claimes at the far fringe of airey-fairey land. (Not refering to the post in this exchange, but other claimes which strongly suggest use controlled substances.) Reduction of heavy metals in wastewater is done by holding them in or at least on plant tissue. The issue of urban gardens is to keep the poison OUT of plant tissues. This is done by the methods I posted earlier. It is probably possible to come up with some superfund-type bioremediation program that willextract the nutrients. But people who use urban gardens have few funds, let alone superfunds, and want to garden, not conduct bizzare experiments in element translocation. You don't have to have credentials in permacuture, or to understand it much at all, to understand that before all else it is PRACTICAL. Raising soil organic matter, keeping pH between 6.5 and 7, and using various kinds of raised beds (with imported soil or soilless media) are methods ordinary people can put into effect, plant their seeds, and be eating from them in a few months. It is not reasonable to expect urban gardeners to become leading edge soil biochemists and to treat soil with various advanced technologies so that in some years it will be fit for them to grow their lettuce and zuchinni. The solution is out of scale with the problem. I think it is u seful to remind us of the fact that great strides are being made in bioremediation. These should always be funded by the corporation or individuals who caused the pollution. However in some cases, such as ubiquitous lead due to paint and gasoline, that means the taxpayer. Since the urban environment is continually re-polluting itself, it seems not the first place to spend such money. Not when the strip mines, superfund sites, Great Lakes, Chesapeake Bay, ad infinitum of the country can be cleaned and kept clean thereafer. It is easier and cheaper to keep away from poison than to try to extract it from the environment after it is fully dispersed. It is like pissing in a lake and then trying to get the fertilzer back. Tilting at windmills is reasonable compared to tilting against such entropy. For Mother Earth, Dan Hemenway, Yankee Permaculture Publications (since 1982), Elfin Permaculture workshops, lectures, Permaculture Design Courses, consulting and permaculture designs (since 1981), and annual correspondence courses via email. Copyright, 1998, Dan & Cynthia Hemenway, P.O. Box 52, Sparr FL 32192 USA Internships. YankeePerm@aol.com We don't have time to rush. A list by topic of all Yankee Permaculture titles may be found at http://csf.colorado.edu/perma/ypc_catalog.html Elfin Permaculture programs are listed at the Eastern Permaculture Teachers assn home page: http://home.ptd.net/~artrod/epta/eptahmp.html From fbanks@theriver.com Mon Apr 12 18:52:00 1999 Date: Mon, 12 Apr 1999 12:53:49 -0700 From: fbanks To: Permaculture the Earth Forum Subject: Re: Lead bioremediation in gardens [ Part 1, Text/PLAIN (charset: ISO-8859-1 "Latin 1") 117 lines. ] [ Unable to print this part. ] [ The following text is in the "iso-8859-1" character set. ] [ Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set. ] [ Some characters may be displayed incorrectly. ] Hello ~   I'm not a certified permaculturalist or anything fancy....   I  happened to read an article just last night that may help in this situation....   from  National Geographic, August 1993, "Bacteria:  Teaching Old Bugs New Tricks"....    "Lethal cyanide poured daily from the Homestake Mine's gold processing plant into South Dakota's Whitewood Creek.  Mercury, arsenic, and sewage thickened the toxic flow....   A Homestake biochemist said "I thought bacteria could do it [clean up the cyanide].  I collected samples of water exposed to the poison.  They held cyanide-tolerant bacteria that actually feed on the poison's carbon and nitrogen.  We designed...  a series of tanks in which the cyanide effluent moves slowly past feeding bacteria.  It worked."   "....Groundwater Technology, Inc. of Norwood, Mass [are] specialists in treating polluted groundwater and soil.  They have used the technology of bioremediation to clean up hundreds of sites around the world...   ".....[The author] sought out some sore spots...  a Superfund project on the lower Mississippi...  the soil [was] black with contaminants --- more than 200 toxic compounds....  [A biochemist with Louisiana St. University] identified bacteria that were already eating the pollutants and encouraged them to reproduce.  [They were] applied to a contaminated test site.  In nine months they cleaned it up.   "....Aviation fuel had been leaking from [a Traverse City, Michigan Coast Guard] station's underground tanks, maybe for decades.  Its invisible plume had moved a mile with the groundwater [contaminating wells].  Traverse Group, Inc, a bioremediation firm, drilled interdiction wells to pump out the fuel at the station boundary.  The effect on the plume was astonishing.   With the  spread of the spill halted, the indigenous soil microbes quickly did their work, and the plume collapsed on itself.  After 18 months no trace of it was found beyond the station."  [End of excerpt]   Why not try a cheaper easier solution to your lead-infested parking lot soil first, before buying expensive topsoil.....    Till or plow deeply, adding copious amounts of compost and rough, rotting organic matter like moldy hay or straw....    Water the soil thoroughly and keep it moist for several weeks.....  then have it retested and see if the lead levels are dropping...   It seems to me that since the soil had been sealed off from the air by the asphalt pavement, helpful bacteria had no opportunity to flourish....   Perhaps all they need is some air (deep rototilling and coarse organic additions), micronutrients (compost and water), and some innoculation (compost and moldy hay).....   and the dormant, lead-eating bacteria will clean up this site FOR you...??   Why not be a "test case" for this method, since you already have an investment in one official lead test....  Your results could be very helpful for others encountering the same problem.....  If it doesn't work, you can always resort to  the more expensive methods (imported soil, raised beds, etc.)  I'm betting  your soil cleans itself up....   Could I be mistaken?  I'm no biochemist, either...   But it sounds reasonable, even with heavy metals....  Bioremediation works on industrial sewage full of heavy metals.....  Harwich, Mass. has a sewage treatment facility that turns the town's residential and industrial sewage into clean water, using only biological processes....   Thanks for listening... Mrs. Joy Banks in AZ       -----Original Message----- From: Rachel Freifelder To: permaculture@envirolink.org Date: Friday, April 09, 1999 12:33 PM Subject: Lead bioremediation in gardens > > >I'm helping to start a garden on a site that was a parking lot.  After >depaving, we got the soil tested for lead and it came back with 700 ppm. >Some extension services say this is "safe to garden" as long as you wash >everything with soap and don't grow roots or greens - in other words almost >no cool-season vegetables. > >We're going to do more detailed spot testing to see if it's only in certain >areas, and if it's just one spot we'll probably dig that out and fill it >with city compost.  In the meantime I am trying to find out what we can do, >particularly what crops are safe to eat, and what we can grow that would >accumulate/concentrate the stuff that we could then harvest and landfill >(or smelt!).  I heard of one person who grew a particular variety of corn >on a lead-contaminated site, then smelted the corn to obtain a lead ingot >(it was an art project).  The extension services all say corn, like other >fruit/seed crops, is safe, but maybe the lead accumulates in the stalk and >husks.  I would love to find out what variety of corn this is. > >  If you have any advice, contacts, books, etc, to suggest, I would be grateful. > >Thank you, >Rachel Freifelder >Mariposa Grove Community Garden >828 59th St >Oakland, CA 94609 >510-655-2936 >rachel@devnull.net > > From rachel@devnull.net Mon Apr 12 18:52:28 1999 Date: Fri, 9 Apr 1999 03:30:47 -0800 From: Rachel Freifelder To: permaculture@envirolink.org Subject: Lead bioremediation in gardens I'm helping to start a garden on a site that was a parking lot. After depaving, we got the soil tested for lead and it came back with 700 ppm. Some extension services say this is "safe to garden" as long as you wash everything with soap and don't grow roots or greens - in other words almost no cool-season vegetables. We're going to do more detailed spot testing to see if it's only in certain areas, and if it's just one spot we'll probably dig that out and fill it with city compost. In the meantime I am trying to find out what we can do, particularly what crops are safe to eat, and what we can grow that would accumulate/concentrate the stuff that we could then harvest and landfill (or smelt!). I heard of one person who grew a particular variety of corn on a lead-contaminated site, then smelted the corn to obtain a lead ingot (it was an art project). The extension services all say corn, like other fruit/seed crops, is safe, but maybe the lead accumulates in the stalk and husks. I would love to find out what variety of corn this is. If you have any advice, contacts, books, etc, to suggest, I would be grateful. Thank you, Rachel Freifelder Mariposa Grove Community Garden 828 59th St Oakland, CA 94609 510-655-2936 rachel@devnull.net