TESTING FIRST: Ready to garden? Avoid the lead. Get a free soil test!

Due to high levels of lead contamination select neighborhoods are able to get free soil testing.

AmeriCorps volunteer Laura Heinlein collects samples for soil testing at the Harbor View Park food forest across from Eimskip on Commercial Street.

-Photos courtesy of Cumberland County Soil and Water Conservation District

By Tony Zeli

As grocery store shelves empty and cooped up Mainers start looking for ways to get outside and enjoy the spring, many will turn to home gardening. While gardening is a healthy—and, shall we say, solitary activity—there is one threat: lead contamination. Especially on Portland’s peninsula, we fnd unsafe levels of lead. So, to encourage gardening while promoting safety, the Cumberland County Soil and Water Conservation District is offering free soil tests in Bayside, East Bayside, Parkside, and West End neighborhoods.

Portland Soil Lead Awareness Project

Laura Heinlein is an AmeriCorps Environmental Steward with the Conservation District and is currently working on an EPA funded education campaign to raise awareness about lead in Portland’s soils.

“Gardening is a great activity to get outside in a contained environment, as well as a means to build awareness of the need for resilient local agriculture. The crux of our education initiative is to encourage people to test their soil,” wrote Heinlein in an email to The West End News.

Heinlein noted that past soil testing on Portland’s peninsula found levels of lead ranging from 10 parts per million (ppm) to as high as 25,000 ppm. Naturally occurring soil lead tops out at 50 ppm and anything above 100 ppm is risky and requires safe gardening techniques. Test, Test, Test

The Cumberland County Soil and Water Conservation District is providing free soil tests to gardeners in Bayside, East Bayside, Parkside, and West End, as these four neighborhoods are considered highrisk for soil contamination.

At low levels, lead in soil is considered safe, but at 100 ppm there is a risk to your health. At more than 400 ppm the amount of lead in your soil is dangerous. Small amounts of lead from the contaminated dirt are breathed in or consumed on dusty vegetables. The lead builds up in your body for months or even years, just like it does in the soil, and slowly gives you lead poisoning.

But don’t worry. It is certainly safe to garden in Portland! To avoid risks associated with high lead levels, we frst must know the levels at a specifc site. And the only way to do that is testing. And if you fnd high levels of lead on your site, don’t worry, you can still garden by growing in raised beds or containers and by selecting plants that take up less lead.

Community garden in the West End

WEN file photo by Tony Zeli

Damon Yakovleff, Environmental Planner with the Conservation District, shared in an email some of the motivations behind the Portland Soil Lead Awareness Project, “We have seen evidence that the COVID situation has generated increased interest in gardening, which is wonderful. In fact, the project we are working on started in part because of the general trend we have observed towards increase in home gardening and local food production over the last decade or so. We want to encourage this, but we also want people to be aware of the potential for soil contamination so they can garden safely.” Who should be testing their soil?

Everyone should test if they have not done so. But even those who have tested in the past are encouraged to get another test to see if there has been any change in the detected lead levels. Yakovleff hypothesizes that there may be some transport of lead even to raised beds. This may be occurring either via soil erosion due to wind and water or from buildup of contaminated leaf litter. With your help, the project may be able to confrm these suspicions.

As part of this project, Conservation District staff will collect the soil sample and deliver the results, for free, to anyone in the targeted neighborhoods who is growing or wants to grow food on their land. The method is “COVID-safe” and the Conservation District’s personnel are considered “essential” due to their role within the agriculture sector.

What to do if you have high levels of lead?

Raised beds (or garden boxes) are the safest way to garden in soils with moderate (100 ppm to 400 ppm) to high levels of lead (above 400 ppm). Remove the top two to three inches of your original garden soil, add a barrier such as landscape fabric or carboard to avoid soil contamination, place your box frame, and fll the box frame with clean soil and compost.

Also, consider the type of food you grow in your garden. Some plants take up less lead such as: cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, corn, pumpkin, squash, eggplant, berries, and apples. Plants that are unsafe tend to be root plants and leafy vegetables including: turnips, onions, beets, potatoes, yams, lettuce, cabbage, carrots, spinach, and kale.

In addition, after a completed soil sample, the Conservation District will follow up with recommendations that are site specifc where higher levels of lead contamination are found. The follow up will include a study of lead content in plant tissues in order to understand the amount of actual risk due to consumption of potentially lead-contaminated produce.

For highly contaminated sites, the Cumberland County Soil and Water Conservation District will work with partners, such as the City of Portland, to connect landowners with resources for remediation. How to get a free test?

If you live in a targeted neighborhood (Bayside, East Bayside, Parkside, and West End), please sign up for the free soil test at https://tinyurl.com/FREESoilTest.

Tony Zeli is publisher and editor. To contact email thewestendnews@ gmail.com.