In 2015 when we took out a lease on a former Junkyard to create our tiny home community experiment, the phrase “inhaling and ingesting dust” was a way to focus on what matters about protecting our health while living above soil with a history of toxicity. For us that meant a simple focus of covering every inch of our site with free mulch to keep us safe from inhaling and ingesting the potentially harmful dust.
Nine years later, our community had to shut down, but we moved our off grid infrastructure and love for the neighborhood into a neighboring lot that was also part of the former Jenkins Junk Yard and recently won a grant from the Department of Toxic Substances Controls called the Equitable Community Revitalization Grant (ECRG) to pay for the expensive testing to get clear answers we’ve been wondering for years about what's going on beneath our feet and how bad is it really for ours and our neighbors health.
The ECRG grant is for what is called a “Site Investigation” in the world of Brownfields (sites with a history of potential toxicity). But our Site Investigation plans will be much more interesting and like tiny homes will be a head scratcher for regulators. Normally a Site Investigation includes 3 Phases. Phase 1 is a research report done by trained soil and geology engineers who compile evidence in the historical record of what potential toxins might be present.
In our case we know from Phase 1 reports on neighboring parcels that there is likely
petroleum hydrocarbons, lead, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in soil from the auto wrecking activities on the land from the 1960’s to the 1990’s.
Phase 2 is when it gets interesting (read expensive) when big fancy machines dig deep into the soil, in our case 15 feet down, to grab samples of ground water and soil, and to setup gadgets in tubes that capture and measure the vapors from deep below that may contain harmful vapors. All of these samples are sent to a lab and a report comes back with some answers that is further scrutinized by scientists at the DTSC.
After potentially some follow up tests, eventually the third phase is to produce a Cleanup Plan document that will map out how exactly the site will be returned to a healthy state for the public.
Our Site Investigation is unique because it will include a Pilot Cleanup experiment embedded in the Phase 2 testing section. Within the world of brownfield cleanups there are two types of approaches to cleaning up toxic soil. The most prevalent and straight forward approach is known as “Dig and Haul,” which is moving the soil by truck to another location (Ex-Situ is the fancy term). While there are many drawbacks to this approach (most of them can be summed up with the phrase- inhaling and ingesting Dust) its the preferred method because its quick and easy to understand. Its also however creating an exposure pathway in the process, its very expensive, and at the end of the process the problem is not solved its just moved to a different location to be a risk to another communities health.
The other type of cleanup (remediation) is finding creative ways to clean the soil in place (En-Situ). And one of the most interesting, but rarely used approaches because of a lack of precedent is Bioremediation, where biological processes are stimulated to digest and neutralize toxins without stirring it up for everyone to ingest and inhale along the way to it’s destination as someone else's problem.
Lead by Environmental Scientist Danielle Stevenson, we will conduct a pilot bioremediation using fungi and plants to see if we can’t begin to clean up the toxins we find in our investigation.
This is exciting, because Brownfields are very expensive to cleanup, and most people who are experts in brownfields aren't even aware of the possibility of a much more affordable, safer, and elegant solution to remediation than the dig and haul method.
So our little Site Investigation on a blip of land on the edge of West Oakland, might contribute to the science and precedents of what's possible going forward in Brownfield remediation.
To help us get the word out and engage in collaborative conversation with our neighbors about this project and the future uses of the site after its cleaned, we have partnered with a coalition of Oakland based nonprofits known as Oakland Allied Knowledge for Climate Action (OAK) to help us seed conversations about the work ahead. We hope to get people thinking about other brownfield sites in the city and the specific vulnerabilities we have in west Oakland with sea level rise and the coming cocktail it could create with our local soil’s industrial past.
If you are interested in learning more about the power of fungi to clean your soil, or to potentially be trained and join the remediation team, or if you have ideas about how our little site could be useful to you as a Resiliency Hub and community greenspace after the Site Investigation and remediation, please join our mailing list, reach out and lets put our heads together on how we can put these valuable lots in our city to use!
I hope you get some good results, but Mother Nature moves ssssslllllloooooowwwwwllllyyyyy.
Interesting note? The former gas station at 14th & Union has a story to tell. During the Land-action.org (LAO) 'era', I actually performed some due diligence on that lot. For once I got to use my Environmental Engineering and Hazardous Waste Operator (HAZWOPer) skills. I engaged former District Three Councilwoman, Lynette McElaney's office to find out how to get this lot remediated so LAO could use it. No surprises, she punted.
Long story short, intel I received from the US EPA and CalEPA offices was it was going to require multiple millions of dollars to remediate--something the City of Oakland could not afford to do. The most upsetting…