Even when dilapidated older homes are torn down, lead from pipes, paint and dust can remain in the soil, creating a health hazard. Small children, who might play in the dirt and put it in their mouths, especially are susceptible to developmental damage caused by lead.
Jerome Jackson, executive director of the nonprofit Operation Better Block in Homewood, suspects demolition that left lead-tainted debris may be the cause of high lead levels found earlier this year in soil two blocks from Westinghouse Academy 6-12. Unfortunately his group had hoped to set up a “learning lab” garden at the site for students in ninth to 12th grade. There would be demonstrations of a wind turbine, sunflower soil remediation and rain barrels, maybe even solar panels.
Guidelines for finding a vacant lot in the city can be found on the website lotstolove.org, launched on Earth Day in April 2015 by GTECH Strategies, the City of Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Greenspace Alliance. It’s organized like a flow chart, with information for each step of the way. Here’s a sampling:
• Engage your community before you start your project.
“The community should be integrated in your project throughout the whole process, and you should be thinking about how your project will affect those around you.”
• Select a lot.
Research and assessment of your lot includes the history of the lot and neighborhood, the lot’s current and former owner, zoning laws and physical characteristics such as soil quality, sun exposure, water access, slope, litter and invasive plant species.
• Get inspired.
When thinking about design ideas, project goals are important in how it will benefit the community. Other questions to ask are how much time you have to commit to it, how many people will help, is there a plan for sustaining the project long term?
• Continue to engage the community.
Community partners such as churches, businesses, council members and neighborhood groups can support your project in many ways.
• Raise funds.
This can be done through crowdfunding, grants, donations and sponsorships.
• Get permission.
Some lots have public owners like the City of Pittsburgh or the Urban Redevelopment Authority. Others have private owners like individuals or community groups. The map on the site has information about each vacant lot.
• Build your project.
Here the site has information on where to get materials and how to build with the help of volunteers.
• Love your lot.
The site suggests how you can celebrate with an event and other activities and sustain the project by maintaining it, with volunteers and fundraising.
But those plans have been set aside because the cost of further testing and remediation would be too high, Mr. Jackson said. Plans were to get students and the community involved in projects, which would also include growing plants, as Operation Better Block does at other sites.
“In the beginning, it’s getting kids interested in planting vegetables and flowers,” he said. In time, young people get enthusiastic about it; some join the agency’s Junior Green Corps. Some of them partner with Tree Pittsburgh to become Tree Tenders, helping with tree care and plantings.
“What I found is when young people try it at first, it’s a little foreign. When they get it, they get very good. We want to get them to plant gardens in their own backyards.” The soil at home needs to be tested for garden suitability and safety as well, he said. This past year a garden had a good yield of green peppers and corn.
“They get to see a seed sprout. It grows into a small plant starting to produce the pepper. They got at least 100 or so green peppers, also some small hot peppers.”
Near Westinghouse, soil samples were taken from the city-owned lots on the block bisected by Amity Way between Fielding Way and Idlewild Street and were tested by the soil and plant nutrient testing lab at the University of Massachusetts extension service.
A standard measure of a safe soil lead level is below 22 parts per million. In the report prepared for the nonprofit GTECH Strategies on behalf of Operation Better Block, the tests found lead levels of 31.8 ppm, 37.2 ppm, 70.3 ppm, 92.9 ppm and 247.8 ppm. The first four were labeled “medium” lead levels; the last was labeled “high.” Further testing to measure total lead and other heavy metals is recommended for soil above 22 ppm.
Mr. Jackson said his group knows about remediating soil for urban gardens, including planting sunflowers, which are noted for their ability to draw heavy metals out of contaminated soil. On a garden plot on nearby Frankstown Avenue, soil was tested three years ago and sunflowers were used in remediation, which can take several growing seasons.
But he said they can’t afford replacing several layers of soil — as would be needed on the lots near the school. Two city-owned lots on North Lang Avenue were developed as gardens instead.
Mr. Jackson has faced incomplete restoration of property after a demolition in the past. It’s not just lead materials that get left behind. Developing green space on Tioga Street was a challenge.
“We found building debris,” he said. Demolition workers “decided, ‘That’s it; we’re going to put stuff in and cover it with topsoil. Where we were digging holes for tires for kids to climb in, we ran into cinder blocks and bricks. You can spend a lot of time on [removing debris], even for green space.”
Operation Better Block continues to search for, and develop, properties for gardens, Mr. Jackson said. Among the organizations they work with are GTECH, Grow Pittsburgh and Tree Pittsburgh.
Evaine K. Sing, GTECH chief operating officer, said those involved had to drop the project near the school because the city will not allow access to the property because lead levels were above the threshold set in its Adopt-A-Lot process.
“They’re trying to limit liability, limit access,” she said.
GTECH works with other municipalities and property owners to reclaim vacant land to benefit communities. In Pittsburgh’s process, the land can only be used for rain gardens, flower gardens or food gardens.
In other projects, she said, some accommodation can be made to avoid planting on sections of lots that are contaminated.
“We’ve seen levels higher than we prefer, but we could put a garden shed, for example, over the area.” Disturbing soil to build trails should be avoided and pregnant women and small children should not be exposed to the soil, she said.
“We have seen [high lead levels] in Pittsburgh. The highest test was in the 700s to 1,000 [ppm]. That’s much more concerning. Anything over 100 is questionable: Who will be on it? What are you doing there? Technically under 300 you can still grow food. It depends on your comfort level.”
The city’s standard threshold is cautious, she said, adding that GTECH considers lead levels of 250 ppm and below acceptable to begin projects. For a garden, she said, over 100 ppm could be concerning if small children are involved.
Since the lots near Westinghouse are overgrown with vegetation, they do not present a hazard to children at this point, according to David Namey, head of Housing & Community Environment for the Allegheny County Health Department.
“It’s good the kids aren’t playing in the lot,” Mr. Namey said. Because 60 percent of the county’s housing stock was built before 1950, when the lead content in paint was higher, he said it’s not uncommon to find contaminated soil in the city.
His department focuses on testing for lead hazards in children’s homes and bare soil in the yards — soil that is not covered in mulch or grass. That is where children are most likely to be exposed to lead, he said.
“The highest risk is when children are 9 months and 2 to 3 years of age,” he said, “when the nervous system is developing, when everything that goes into their mouths goes into the bloodstream. As the child gets older, that risk minimizes.”
A guide for legal and safe gardening on vacant lots can be found at lotstolove.org, a website developed by GTECH, the City of Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Greenspace Alliance. Testing for lead is part of the process, as was done on the lots along Amity Way.
“This is a site we called out,” Ms. Sing said, “but the reality is these dangers or more could be anywhere in the neighborhood … This is what it means to live in the urban environment.”
Jill Daly: jdaly@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1596.
First Published: December 20, 2016, 5:00 a.m.