Hello Mike McG, Soils have all the characteristics of Non-renewable resources. Soils take a long time to be developed, thousands of years. If you are interested in how soil is formed google 'Jennys soil forming factors'. There are seven of them including things like topography, climate, etc... and TIME. When you just say, bring in some new soil to cap a toxic site, it reminds me of the old habit people used to have of dumping toxic chemicals down the sink and just thinking, if I dilute it enough 'it will be alright'. It won't be alright. Bringing new soil to a toxic site is a waste of good soil. If the site is that toxic it should be remediated. If it can't be remediated, walk away from it. All soils have some trace of how we have treated our world (like a toilet). Just to illustrate, and only one example. Scientists were drilling into glaciers in the Canadian Rockies and were analyzing the ice cores. Not too far down they came upon pesticides for cotton Boll Weevils. What the heck? Nobody in the Rockies grows cotton! What had happened is that cotton growers in Texas were spraying for Boll Weevils by aerial methods. The Wind picked up the insecticide and only let down over the Rockies in the North. When a smelter increases the height of its stacks to reduce 'local pollution' it comes down somewhere else. I don't think there is any getting away from it. In India the sky is purple with pollution. That pollution does not recognize politically drawn boundaries. The truth is that all community gardens, inside your cities or in peri-urban areas have some level of heavy metals or toxins of other sorts. The best we can do is avoid the really hot spots. Garden safely, always wear gardening gloves, never eat produce straight from the garden, do not garden on windy days, you can breathe in the toxins too, always peel root crops before you eat them, and avoid leafy crops, because plants will tend to accumulate these things in the leaves and the roots. If a site is toxic and it is a small community garden organization don't advise people to cap it over and haul good soil from somewhere else. These methods are very costly, and in realtiy all you are doing is robbing peter to pay paul. Look for a site which meets minimal standards for toxins and then start to build better soil. And don't use biosoilds. These are full of stuff you don't want to know. Yes, they may have nice N-P-K numbers but they also are full of fire retardants, antibiotics, etc etc. This is just my advice, I tend to be a 'soil snob'. But, it is the future, and it is in our hands. Karen
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