Arsenic and lead in soil, has anyone tested their soil?

[Westy]

There is a problem all over King county. It is especially bad In West Seattle. King county. Gov public health has more info. There goes my organic garden.

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[WSB]

Before everybody completely freaks out, this has been something studied for about a decade. Mostly tracing back to the Asarco smelter that operated for years in Tacoma. I’ve seen the cable-TV PSAs and gone rooting around in the King County infowebs to be sure we weren’t missing something new and alarming. Here’s a newspaper story from seven years ago:

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20020405&slug=arsenic05m

The key phrase is that while they’d found some contamination, they hadn’t found health effects. Does mean that if you have unexplained health problems, in this area, probably a good idea to make sure your blood is checked for lead etc.

Here’s one place on the King County website to start – it also talks about testing, if you ever feel you need to do that.

http://www.kingcounty.gov/healthServices/health/ehs/toxic/LeadFacts.aspx

Specific info about the Tacoma Smelter Plume (the wide area of the region affected before the smelter went out of business) is here –

http://www.kingcounty.gov/healthservices/health/ehs/toxic/TacomaSmelterPlume/background.aspx

including maps.

And yet more info:

http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/tcp/sites/tacoma_smelter/ts_hp.htm

Just grazed through the 2009 Legislative Report which highlighted schools that needed cleanups. No West Seattle mentions.

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[herongrrrl]

Thanks, TR! That info is definitely worth a look before freaking out about this. I did some research about this a few years ago when I was starting to get serious about my veggie garden and was satisfied that the deposition from Asarco in WS was not a significant issue for gardening.

Friends of mine on the south end of Maury Island, where the soil is definitely highly contaminated with arsenic because it was so close to the smelter, solved the gardening problem by building high raised beds, bringing in clean fill, and not growing root veggies, which is a pretty workable option if you are really concerned about it.

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[Nichelle]

My soil was tested and there were minimal amount found but they are digging up and replacing my play yard soon i live in the highland park area

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[WSB]

Who’s “they” – a government agency? Would love to follow up on that if there are indeed such operations still happening in WS. You can e-mail me at editor@westseattleblog.com if you don’t want to disclose details on the board here.

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[JayDee]

If you build a raised bed, try and refrain from framing the raised bed with treated lumber, the kind with little lines of holes, and ofttimes a greenish tinge. Chrome copper aresenate (a form of Arsenic)is commonly used in treated lumber. Arsenic is very mobile and will leach into the raised bed soil, in my opinion. Real wood will rot, but it will take awhile, and Trex (aside from the plastic component) is another. Put it this way, I would not grow my veggies in a CCA-treated raised bed.

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[herongrrrl]

Good point, JayDee.

I forgot to mention in my earlier post that soils in the PNW tend to have a higher “background” level of naturally occurring arsenic than other parts of the country. Don’t know if it’s enough to register on a standard soil test, and of course the natural levels will vary from place to place.

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[SpeakLoud]

A year or 2 ago the State Environmental ??? came to all the licensed childcare programs in the South end of West SEattle and WHite Center and tested the soil. If you ‘passed’ you got a nice certificate to certify your site as ‘Soil Smart’ and if not they offered to come and clean-up by removing and replacing contaminated soil in the playgrounds of the centers (and licensed homes I think?)

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[Nichelle]

Yes thats about when we were tested and now the cleanup process starts It was the Washington State Department of Ecology there web address is http:/www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/tcp/sites/tacoma_smelter/soilsaftey.htm

This tells about the cleanup process

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[timeslid]

If your raised beds have been built in the last 5 years they would not contain CCA (chromated copper arsenic). Instead they would be ACQ (alkaline copper quat ). Excessive copper isn’t so great for you either but its not like arsenic. Here is a reference from http://www.finegardening.com/design/articles/pressure-treated-wood-in-beds.aspx:

“Public concern over potential hazards of CCA has led the industry to look for safer, less controversial preservatives. A few years ago, one of the producers of CCA came out with a preservative touted as environmentally sound. ACQ®, which stands for alkaline copper quat, is a mix of copper and a quaternary ammonium compound, nicknamed quat. Small amounts of copper and quat do leach, but nothing in ACQ is considered hazardous by the EPA, and no ingredient is a known or suspected carcinogen. The maker, Chemical Specialties, Inc. (CSI), uses only recycled copper in ACQ. The wood is expected to last as long as CCA-treated lumber.

I first heard about ACQ four years ago, but had never found a place to buy it. Why, I wondered, was it so unavailable if it had so much to recommend it? The first version to go on the market contained no water repellent and had to be treated by the buyer to minimize cracks and warping. In late 1997, CSI came out with a version, ACQ Type D, which has a built-in water repellent. The company hopes the new formulation will be more attractive to lumber retailers and consumers. ACQ-treated wood is about 10% more expensive than CCA because it contains more copper.”

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