A community garden in a flood plain is risky simply from the standpoint of all the work being washed away. I know because I have a garden in a flood plain. How often does it flood?
For tracts of land that we want to use for CG we use a local environmental consulting company. They test for hvy metals and other pollutants. We have to bring in the sample, but they test for free. You might call those companies in your area, explain, your problem, and ask for suggestions. Heavy metals and ecoli at the minimum. Steve Crane Director of Operations Stragent Foundation Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T -----Original Message----- From: John Hintz <johnhi...@gmail.com> Sender: community_garden-boun...@list.communitygarden.org Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2012 13:25:45 To: <community_garden@list.communitygarden.org> Subject: [Community_garden] flooded community garden soil test Greetings, I live in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania and am on the board of our 2 acre community garden. The garden is right in the floodplain of the Susquehanna River and sat under Susquehanna River floodwater for a couple of days during last September's record floods. I have called several soil labs, ag extension offices, and soil conservation districts to ask what (if anything) we should have the soil tested for. Several gardeners have (reasonably) expressed concern that the river water in the Susquehanna is very polluted, that there are several municipal water treatment plants upstream from the garden that were flooded during this event, and a few are even worried about possible contaminants from the fracking activity in the area. The only person we have talked to who have offered any advice suggests we test for: - Heavy metals - PCBs - Salmonella - E coli - Clostridium pathogens The nearby lab can do the first three, but had no experience with e coli or clostridium tests (or requests for tests for those pathogens). So I guess we will go ahead and get the soil tested for lead, arsenic, and mercury (probably a good idea anyway since we don't know the history of the site the garden is on) and PCBs and salmonella as well, and take it from there depending on what results come in. My questions for the list are: Does anyone out there have any advice as to whether this is a good strategy? Are there other things we should be testing for? Are there labs that will test for clostridium? More generally, anyone else out there gardening in areas that were flooded? If so, what, if anything, are you doing? Thanks a bunch John Hintz Bloomsburg PA -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20120402/c04ce601/attachment.html> _______________________________________________ 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@list.communitygarden.org To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org _______________________________________________ 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@list.communitygarden.org To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org
