Bones

When I entered the foyer there was the scent suggestion of rotting fish heads, and by any stretch this is not so unusual in my building. But then I had the thought -had my fish bones arrived? Are they in our apartment? No, they weren't, and just as I passed our apartment door, I heard my neighbor opening hers. I looked outside and asked her, "Did you get a package, does it smell like fish?"

"Yes, yes, please come and take it," she said in her nightgown. Who could blame her eagerness to rid herself of it. I told her it was only fertilizer, and not to worry, but as soon as I put it in our place, its fishhead funk was so powerful that I had to return it to the hall, with a promise to put it in our van the next morning.

After reading about the interaction of phosphates and soil-bound lead in stories about sewage sludge, and then again in last year's article in the NYTimes about fish bones used, alternatively, to reduce the impact of lead in garden soils, I decided to do some research of my own. There must be a source of free fish bones somewhere in the northeast, right?

Well, I couldn't find any, but I did find the scientists working on the fishbone formula. They sell their own fishbone meal (Apatite II) for use in a lead abatement process. Further along, I noticed that many organic producers have shifted away from ruminant bone meal (mad cow worries) to fish bone meal in their phosphorous fertilizers. After reading, and then some more reading, I decided to go with a fish bone meal from an organic producer that came in considerably, considerably, less than the Apatite II sold by the ton. I do not know how much I need, but I know it's not a ton. I bought 30 pounds. For the record, the 'inventors' of Apatite II say you must use their product for real results. 

In as simple terms as I can concoct, the phosphates (they are negatively charged, so an anion) will bond to the lead ions (they are positively charged, a cation) and create what is called new 'phosphate phases' (Apatite, the mineral) that are stable, or highly insoluble. I'm no scientist, and my research, is, well, on the internet, so I am not here to claim some miracle cure for high soil lead content. However, it was worth the try.

I applied the fish bone meal to the beach farm last Sunday. Why the beach farm? Last autumn I had the soil tested, and received my results this January. The lead was higher than I would like, way under the residential limits, mind you, but high enough to leave me disappointed. A turning in of a slow-releasing, high phosphate fertilizer seemed the least I could do to try to diminish our exposure to lead. 

Where plants were already in the ground, I could only rake the meal into the surface. Young garlic takes well to a fine-tined leaf rake. The lettuce-then-tomato and other empty beds received copious fish bone turned into the soil to a depth of about 10 inches.

The odor was of decaying fish, but that seemed perfectly natural as the breezes blew in from the ocean only three hundred yards away. It was an enhancement.

The beds raked, I then went over to the large, now empty, paper sack. I looked it over as if, perhaps, I had missed something that would be entirely too late to correct. I found the finest of fine prints on the back of the sack, down toward the bottom. It read "Information regarding the contents and level of metals in this product is available on the internet at http://www.aapfco.org/metals"

Yikes. I'm adding fish bones to my soil to improve the metals content, not add to it! When I got home, I went to the site. At first I couldn't find any useful information, but the site did lead me to another: http://www.aapfco.org/rules.html. On that page there is the startling information below.

"fertilizers that contain guaranteed amounts of phosphates and/or micronutrients are adulterated when they contain metals in amounts greater than the levels of metals established by the following table:" 

Metals	ppm per 1% P2O5	ppm per 1% Micronutrients3
1. Arsenic	13	112
2. Cadmium	10	83
3. Cobalt	1366	22286
4. Lead	61	463
5. Mercury	1	6
6. Molybdenum	42	3004
7. Nickel	250	1,900
8. Selenium	26	180
9. Zinc	420	2,9004

To use the Table chose one of the following three situations:

1. Fertilizers with a phosphate guarantee; but, no micro-nutrient guarantee:

Multiply the percent guaranteed P₂O₅ in the product by the values in the table to obtain the maximum allowable concentration of each metal. The minimum value for P₂O₅ utilized as a multiplier shall be 6.0.
2. Fertilizers with one or more micro-nutrient guarantees; but, no phosphate guarantee:
Multiply the sum of the guaranteed percentages of all micro-nutrients (as defined by AAPFCO's Official Fertilizer Term, T-9) in the product by the value in the appropriate column in the Table to obtain the maximum allowable concentration (ppm) of each metal. The minimum value for micro-nutrients utilized as a multiplier shall be 1.
3. Fertilizers with both a phosphate and a micro-nutrient guarantee:
A.  Multiply the guaranteed percent P₂O₅ by the value in the appropriate column. The minimum value for P₂O₅ utilized as a multiplier shall be 6.0. Then,
B.  Multiply the sum of the guaranteed percentages of the micro-nutrients by the value in the appropriate column. The minimum value for micro-nutrients utilized as a multiplier shall be 1. Then,
C.  Utilize the higher of the two resulting values as the maximum allowable concentration (ppm) of each metal. 

My fish bone fertilizer has a phosphate guarantee of 18%, but not micro-nutrients (#1, above). According to their information, I need to multiply 18 by 61 (for lead quantities) to reveal the parts per million of lead in my fish bone meal. WHAT? That is outrageous. This would mean that my natural fish bone meal has 1098 ppm of lead? What about cobalt? 2448 ppm! And remember, it says that the fertilizer is considered adulterated only if the amounts are actually higher than these.

This can't be right, yet this is where I found myself after following the link on the bag. So I sent Dr. Earth an email to ask about this, but guess what, the good doctor must be busy, because a week later he still hasn't responded to my concerns.

Today, I realized that the link given on the bag was incorrect (I've corrected it above). I found the site which it intended to link, which then lead to three western state agencies (why are they better at this?) that test fertilizers for certain heavy metals.

The Washington State results for my fishbone meal.
The Oregon State results for my fish bone meal.
The California results appear to be unlinkable, but their results can be seen by following the main link above the chart.

All three states had somewhat different test results. Washington had the most comprehensive test. The numbers are extremely low compared to the numbers achieved by the formula given by the Association of American Plant Food Control Officials or AAPFCO.

So where does all that leave me? Scratching my head. I will retest my soil in a couple of months to see if or how the levels have changed. 

.

Soil Lead Clean-up

For some reason, the NY Times ran this new article on the lead in the Obama veg garden and it has all the qualities of a correction.

The Order of Things

I finally got the side vegetable garden organized.

I put two layers of "landscape fabric" underneath a layer of wood mulch. You can see it here where I brushed away the mulch. The roots of the tomatoes reach through the wooden planters and tap into the soil beneath, which has a higher concentration of some heavy metals. So I placed this barrier to assist in my effort to contain the tomatoes.

I finally got the path cleared. Also, quite late, but finally got the gleaming white bush bean seeds in underneath the soil, underneath the squirrel-protection-screen.

The basil and other herbs are doing quite well. This year we have thyme, oregano, sage, cilantro, parsley, rosemary, and chives. In a lot of ways, the garden is all about the herbs -they're used every day.

And the side yard broccoli 'Calabrese'. C'mon little guy, you can do it.

Cornell Cranky About Article

I picked up this blog posting about the NYTimes Lead Article at the Cornell Cooperative Extension Community Horticulture blog. It seems they were a little peeved about misquotes or misinformation in the article. They also mentioned my blog -how nice! I quote:

"Murray McBride of CSS and the Cornell Waste Management Institute was quoted. A little alarmist, with some significant misquotes - we are not in fact offering free soil testing, though we have gotten four calls as of yesterday inquiring about such a service… but generally not quite as sensational or inaccurate as we feared, but a bit too much for our taste. We are in the process of writing a letter to the editor with hope that we could turn this into a learning moment."

The Cornell Waste Management Institute has a page regarding soil quality. I will link to this permanently on my resources listing.

Extra Extra, Read All About It....Here

Well to my surprise the Times article came out on line this evening. It'll be out in print tomorrow.

Just a few points before you rush to read it.

• I rent an apartment, not a house in Brooklyn.
• My vegetable patch is barely bountiful, produces vegetable snacks -with exception of the green beans and herbs.
  
• My soil lead in the side yard is at least 50 times N.Y.S. background levels according to the numbers I received from The Environmental Sciences Analytical Center or 90 times the U.S. agricultural soil levels average according to the University of Minnesota Extension.
• My vegetables are all in wooden planter boxes or plastic nursery pots. The soil in them is a mix of bagged potting soil and bagged compost, not "nursery dirt."
  

That covers my corrections. I spoke to Dr. Cheng at Brooklyn College today and he has agreed to put together a short bit about dealing with heavy metal contamination in NYC soils. He told me he is getting plenty of new samples since listing his service on nycgarden. I will also post soon about the simple things you can do to help if your soil has high levels of lead. Start with this one thing -keep your kids from eating the dirt!

Now read it and weep lead!

Then compare to nycgarden post My Farm (where all this started) and Mutterings on the Mutter. Its a shame thy blog did not get a mention. But the Times photographer, Patrick, did a good job despite the toxically bright sun that day.

I'd like to post about how the garden is doing before I split for Weir Farm. So moving on.

**UPDATE**

The online addition corrected the "9 times" to read " 90 times" based on the facts presented later in the story. Alas, the Late Edition print can not say the same.

Lead Belly

This is the soil under my vegetable planters

I have received my soil test results from the ESAC. I had a sense that things weren't good over in the side garden, but I didn't think it would be as bad as it is. Although I suppose it could've been worse. I didn't test the front yard mostly because I do not plant veggies over there, but now I am thinking I will test it. In addition to the side yard analysis, I sent in my planter box compost, which is a mixture of Farfard product and an "I can't remember brand" of seaside compost I bought from Gowanus Nursery last year. I did this as a sort of control group, something to compare the yard earth to.

The good Dr. Cheng analyzed my soil himself. Below are the results, please click on the image to zoom in.

These numbers will mean little to you as they do me until they are put into context. Dr. Cheng has agreed to provide that context but asked me not to post that until some final details are worked out. Comparing the side yard soil under my gardening feet to the store-bought compost kept in pots:

• Arsenic is 3 x greater in the side yard



• Lead is 50 x greater in the side yard



• Cadmium is 3 x greater in the side yard



• Chromium is 2 x greater in the side yard



• Mercury is 9 x greater in the side yard



• Soil PH is a bit more acid in the side yard (expected and compost near neutral 7)



• Organic content (humus) is a low 8 percent of soil in the side yard



• Soluble Salts were half what they are in the compost (not sure what this means)

In regards to nutrients:

• Calcium (Ca) is 5 x greater in the compost (probably because of sea life in it)
• Magnesium (Mg) is 4 x greater in the compost
• Phosphates (P) are 24 x greater in the compost
• Iron (Fe) and Potassium (K) are just a bit more in the compost
• Manganese (Mn) is 3 x greater in the compost
• Copper (Cu) is about 23 % less in the compost
• Zinc (Zn) is about 95 % less in the compost

What does all this mean? Well, we can see that the compost has a greater nutrient load than the common soil. It also has a balance PH compared with the common soil. Only copper and zinc are lower in the compost over the side yard soil.

Clearly the side yard soil has much elevated Lead (Pb). Close to 1/10 of a percent of the analyzed soil is lead or put another way, for every 10000 particles of soil, there is one particle of lead.

EPA guidelines put Lead safely at 400 ppm, my soil is well over 900 ppm. Then there's the Mercury, Cadmium, Chromium, and really, who knows what else?

Garden Soil Testing

For any questions regarding the ESAC soil testing service, click on the link below. I have used this soil-testing service, and you can see how I put my sample together here and the results of my tests here. For other thoughts on lead in our soils, read this post and that post. See my page above for other testing services.

Brooklyn College Environmental Sciences Analytical Center SOIL TESTING SERVICE.

Any Questions:

Contact: Dr. Joshua Cheng
Phone: (718) 951-5000 ext. 2647
Fax: (718) 951-4753
Email: zcheng@brooklyn.cuny.edu
Brooklyn College Environmental Sciences Analytical Center
2900 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, New York 11210

Mutterings on the Mutter (thats mooter to you ter)

One of the side trips of our 36 hours in Philadelphia was a return to the Mutter Museum, part of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. It is a small and gruesome display of medical maladies and oddities collected over the years. As was the case for me and my wife, the blown glass display cases and low lighting, not to mention the subject, leads the visitor towards feeling a little woozy. I was interested to go for a second time because they had a small exhibit on the effects of lead on humans throughout history.

I use lead white paint in the studio, but not so much that I should worry about it. However, I was interested to read about painters and makers of paint back in the day who became ill due to their exposure to lead. One symptom of their disease was limp wrists, leading me to speculate on the origin of the phrase "limp-wristed artist." There was also a section on the association of lead with Saturn and melancholia. This in mind, I read Goya's painting anew -this time it is melancholy devouring his offspring, melancholy destroying what it created.

Saturn Devouring His Son

As the exhibition winds down it crosses into lead as a poison and then its use as a pesticide. What? Yep, pesticide. Funny, so often you hear that pesticides were a product of WWI or WWII chemical industries. But previous generations were looking for pesticides of their own and lead was brewed into lead arsenate for their purpose. Apparently, we in the good ol' U S of A have used lead arsenate as late as 1988. Lead makes for a great pesticide partly because it sticks real good to the leaves, just as lead-based paints stick real good to the trim. As mentioned in a previous post, lead stays put in the soil and is taken up by leafy greens more than fruiting bodies.

A final display shows Mexican candy (lead sweetener???) and mentions that lead arsenate is still used in Mexico as a pesticide (but where else???). One thing I never understand is why all those kids are eating lead paint chips. I had no idea that lead mixed with acetic acid (lead acetate) created a sweet tasting substance. Anything sweet is good to a kid. But the adults, they even used it in wine!!! And skin creams, but that's another story.

By the way, as a painter I use the white pigment titanium dioxide more than the lead or zinc whites. This titanium pigment ends up in skin creams too, but also food products like cream cheese, mozzarella, and other must-be-super-white foods.

Recently I received a comment on my Bio page from a professor , Dr. Joshua (Zhongqi) Cheng, Director of the Environmental Sciences Analytical Center at CUNY Brooklyn. In our brief exchange, he expressed interest in getting the word out about his lab.

In a subsequent email, Dr. Cheng told me:

"My lab can analyze heavy metals for all kinds of samples (soil, plants, vegetables, sediments, etc.). Another lab I associate with can do hydrocarbons. The price for heavy metals are $10-20 per sample, depending on the number of samples."

These are exceptional prices for these services and done locally, supporting Brooklyn College employees. For those of us who garden in front and back yards with questionable histories, like the storage of CCA and Creosote treated telephone poles for instance, this can help create some peace of mind. I have asked Dr. Cheng for a list of lab services and pricing. If he agrees, I will add this info to the RESOURCES listing. I plan on sending him some samples of my soil soon.

My Farm

Have you heard of this business -MyFarmSF.

It operates like this: You pay a one time fee ($600-1000), they come in and install a vegetable garden in your yard. You pay them a weekly maintenance fee ($35+/-), they come by once a week to maintain it. They harvest vegetables and give you some or all of the produce. This is a for profit venture. For people who want home-grown vegetables but are so busy they cannot do it themselves, yet can pay for it.

Anyone willing to do this here in NYC? Call it PSA, Personally Supported Agriculture.

What have been people's experiences with the soil in their backyards? I've been doing research on companies that do soil testing for hydrocarbons (like gasoline, benzene, toluene) or heavy metals (like lead or cadmium). Accurate Building Inspectors, also known as the Ubells of The Guru's of How-To on the Leanoard Lopate Show offer these services. They offer many tests, but the charges are real high.

I had some of these tests done 6 years ago for a landscape job I was doing on 15th Street around Park Slope, yet I don't remember the company name, but I do remember that the results told me little of what the compounds meant to a gardener. I ended up excavating much of the fill that was present and replacing it a hundred cubic yards of compost/soil mix from Nature's Choice in Jersey. We didn't grow any vegetables either.

Apparently, a major metal to be on the look out for is lead. Natural accumulations in soil average 10 parts per million. The EPA considers 300 parts per million to be the upper limit of allowable. With lead, its the children we most worry about as it is absorbed more by their guts than those of adults. Fruit (tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, etc.) do not tend to store lead. But the non-fruiting parts of vegetables, and leafy greens do uptake and store lead. The upper level of soil holds the most lead. Therefore, any soil-contacting vegetable (like carrots, turnips, radishes) will have lead on it's surface should there be a problem with lead in your soil.

Where does lead most likely come from in your yard. Two places: Old house paint (old renovation debris stored on site or chipping exterior paint) and car exhaust. Of course, lead has since been removed from these sources, but the problem with lead is that it doesn't migrate through the soil. It stays put, no matter how many years are between your soil and the lead contamination.

The University of Minnesota Extension has a page dedicated to soil lead with some suggestions for remediation. A similar page at Cornell.

But I have friends who simply vegetable garden their urban plots. Best we do is see that the lot was always used for a residence. You can do this via old fire insurance maps of NYC. There can be rather obvious signs of potential problems like dirty fill or construction debris, buried rusty auto parts, or that no plants or weeds are growing there, or even that the soil smells "chemically."

I'd love to hear stories of people's back yards. What are they like? What's your soil like? Do you grow vegetables? Would you pay someone else to do it for you in your own yard?