1. Heavy Metal Soil Burdens in Cleveland, OH: Implications for Urban Agriculture Nicole Hoekstra The Ohio State University JurqStudio

2. Presentation Outline Cleveland background and status of urban agriculture Policy gaps in urban agriculture Getting started in urban agriculture Heavy metal analysis in vacant lots

3. Cleveland background and status of urban agriculture

4. A brief history of Cleveland, Ohio From the Manufacturing Belt to the Rustbelt

5. Early industry: Dairy Ag processing and implements Coal mining Petroleum processing Steel Rubber 1870 – 1930: average decadal growth rate of 47%. By 1975, highest quintile among cities for poverty, unemployment, poor housing, violent crime, and municipal debt. 1990s = restructuring and reindustrialization!

6. Green et al. 2015 Despite all the growth and restructuring of Cleveland, the inner city problems of vacant land and impoverished communities persist.

7. What to do with all those lots Neighborhood parksUrban agriculturePocket prairies Rain gardensBiodiversity and ecosystem function research

8. Status of urban agriculture in CLE 200+ community gardens 12 farmer’s markets 20 urban farms and market gardens 25 community supported agriculture programs 2009

9. Status of urban agriculture in CLE Several CLE restaurants now serve farm to table. Intercontinental Hotel keeps a beehive on their roof for use in their restaurant. One of nation’s first ordinances for urban garden zoning.

10. Policy gaps in urban agriculture

11. Brownfields and Urban Agriculture Midwest Summit (Oct, 2010) No definitive standards for soil contamination levels for food production on an urban brownfield. There are no standards regulating quality of soil for soil used as a growing medium. There are no soil testing requirements for sites to be used for urban agriculture. Existing risk-based clean-up standards categories include residential, commercial, and industry. Need a new category for urban ag.

12. Getting started in urban agriculture

13. Best Resources http://epa.ohio.gov/derr/volunt/volunt.aspx

14. Heavy Metal Analysis in Vacant Lots

15. Research Notes For presentation, focusing on Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) metals: - Arsenic (As)- Chromium (Cr) - Barium (Ba) - Lead (Pb) - Cadmium (Cd) Sampling effort matters! 2014 Lots divided into 4 quadrats, 5 soil cores (2 x 10 cm), cores pooled. 2015 Lots divided into 105 quadrats, 4 quadrats randomly selected, 1 soil core (5 x 5 cm), cores pooled.

16. Background report created to be used for direct comparison to properties located in Cuyahoga County (VAP soil background rule requirements (OAC 3745- 300-07(H)(2))). Background levels used to determine whether further evaluation of a site is necessary.

17. Study conducted in 8 neighborhoods: Detroit Shoreway (DS) Tremont (TR) Slavic Village (SV) Central (CE) Hough (HO) Fairfax (FA) Buckeye (BU) Glenville (GL)

18. Arsenic 0.04% of lots above background level (24 mg/kg), both years.

19. Barium 100% of lots above background level (98.9 mg/kg), both years.

20. Cadmium 92.9% of lots in 2014 and 50% of lots in 2015 above background level (0.834 mg/kg).

21. Chromium 96.4% of lots in 2014 and 87.5% of lots in 2015 above background level (21.1 mg/kg).

22. Lead 100% of lots above background level (51.7 mg/kg), both years. 53.6% (2014) and 28.1% (2015) of lots above remediation level (400 mg/kg).

23. Summary All lots sampled were over the background level for at least two HMs suggesting that RCRA metals be included in soil assessments for urban ag. Continued soil monitoring should be used in urban agriculture as pollution sources are always present in cities. For urban ag. to continue to grow and flourish, we need to fill in the policy gaps and issues and make information easily accessible to the public.

24. Questions? SKYWORLDPROJECT