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K-State's National 'Brownfields' Research Funded by EPA
By Staff of Kansas City infoZine
April 29, 2010
Excerpt:
Manhattan, KS – infoZine – Spring is in the air and urban gardens are sprouting up all over the country.
"Increasingly, urban agriculture is being done on a community basis, rather than an individual basis," said Kansas State University assistant professor of agronomy, Ganga Hettiarachchi. "There are now more than 18,000 community gardens in the U.S. and Canada," she said, citing American Community Gardening Association data.
Some of those gardens are on once-vacant lots and land where buildings once sat. Such locations are convenient for city-dwellers and make productive use of land that otherwise might be weedy, trash-strewn lots. There is a potential downside, however.
The problem in using properties – typically called brownfields – that may have been the site of anything from auto body shops to manufacturing facilities to gas stations, is that the soil on some of those properties can pose health risks if it is contaminated with heavy metals, metalloids or organic compounds, Hettiarachchi said.
She and a team of K-State researchers are working in several states around the country to ensure that growing crops in some urban locales are safe for gardeners and consumers. Other scientists involved include Sabine Martin, brownfields coordinator and Blasé Leven, associate director, both with the Center for Hazardous Substance Research; Larry Erickson, professor in chemical engineering; Gary Pierzynski, professor and DeAnn Presley, assistant professor, both in agronomy; and Rhonda Janke, associate professor of horticulture. Pierzynski is currently serving as K-State interim dean of the College of Agriculture and director of K-State Research and Extension.
The five-year project began in January, 2009 with guaranteed funding from the Environmental Protection Agency of $750,000 and a possibility of up to $900,000.
Brownfield sites are defined by the EPA as vacant, abandoned property, the reuse of which may be complicated by the presence of a hazardous substance or contaminant, Hettiarachchi said. Examples include vacant residential lots, including those adjacent to industrial facilities and abandoned gas stations.
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