[Jome]

Hello, I have just been digging over some fresh ground in my garden and found quite a lot if rubbish under the turf, including some old rusted batteries. Is it safe to grow fruit vegetables in this soil now? I did a quick Google and would like to test the soil for contamination, but I'm not sure how to do that. Can't find anything immediately obvious online.

I'm just concerned as I have young children.

Does anyone know about this?

[Jome]

Anyone?

[mumofstig]

Anyone who had read the post and knew the answer would have replied.

Sorry if that's not helpful ...................

[Eightball]

You would need to get in contact with a soil testing laboratory as testing for containments in soil is not a simple thing and not really something you will be able to do on your own.

[Jome]

Yes that's what I found out from Googling, the thing I couldn't find out is the definitive place to send a sample. Thought someone here might have done similar in the past. Or do you think I am being over cautious?

[Eightball]

I found this on another forum "I have tons of experience - I worked in soils labs for 14 years. Which is how I know that for example, some soils in wandsworth are contaminated with cyanide.....

What I would do, and believe me there are hundreds of contaminants so before wasting money, dig up a few handfuls, mix together in a tray and [with gloves on] handle it, smell it, pop some into a jar of hot water and shake it and leave it to cool and settle.

It if is contaminated, it will likely smell chemically, be slimey or sticky [more than just clayey], or when you take the top off the jar, there will be a oily film or [once the soil settles] a discolouring of the water."

But like anything on the internet, who knows if this guy actually worked in a soil lab for 14 years.

How many batteries are we talking and what kind of other stuff? I would maybe send an email to a few soil labs and tell them what you found in your garden and see how much they charge for soil contamination tests. Could get expensive. If you do go ahead with that i'm sure they will give you instructions on how to collect samples.

[Steveharford]

Jome perhaps you could give Environmental Health a call at your local council. They used to do do asbestos analysis for us and I'm sure they must have a capability to do soil and stuff. Also the water authority may help if it is in danger of seeping into a water course. I would imagine it will all have to be dug out and replaced if it is contaminated. Good luck

[fatcat1955]

If the batteries were car or large ones i would worry. If they were small transistor radio ones and the amount was less than 20 i think you would be ok.

[Goosegirl]

Jome perhaps you could give Environmental Health a call at your local council. They used to do do asbestos analysis for us and I'm sure they must have a capability to do soil and stuff. Also the water authority may help if it is in danger of seeping into a water course. I would imagine it will all have to be dug out and replaced if it is contaminated. Good luck

Good idea, Steve - also it shouldn't cost you anything to have it analysed. Let's hope it isn't too bad - fingers crossed for you.

[gremlin]

There are places that will test for soil contamination. I have used NRM at Bracknell.
However just because they can give you a whole lot of chemical  data wont help much because you then get into a whole world of different interpretations assessing what is significant.  e.g. ICRCL 59/83 Trigger Concentrations.

There are all sorts of surprises, such as arsenic is a perfectly naturally occurring element in soil, up to a point.

I am not a soil scientist, but I picked up some of the lingo.  (When my consultants told me the soil on my construction site was "contaminated", I just approved the order to dig it all out and replace it!)

[Jay The Digger]

If the ground was contaminated with excessive Zinc, it would show on the plants growing there. Plants really struggle to take up the right nutrients and end up either stunted or yellowing. 

Lead hasn't been used in domestic batteries for a while now, so  this may be less of a concern.  If it's car batteries and they have leaked, then you have a problem.

The potential quantity of contamination is probably quite low and local, so digging would dissipate it further.  Maybe reserve it to site a compost heap or lay a path across it.

I would certainly be interested in any test results you have taken.

[Jome]

Thanks for all your replies. There wasn't a car battery, just 5/6 D/c size (the kind you would put in a large radio) they were coroded. It's not really a site that could become a path or compost heap - it's slap bang in the middle if my garden that's now a veg patch ( the only area that gets decent light)
I think I'll try environmental health this week as hopefully that won't cost much.

I'm guessing it's probably fine, just I don't want to take chances as I have young children. I did read online that little heavy metals are taken up by fruit bushes, so I think I will put my raspberries there instead

[ilan]

To be honest I would have tought you were being over worried the soil will have been contaminated with lots of things and you will need to eat a very large amount of produce to suffer any effects . Providing your land had no commercial factory waste on it you will be ok

[solway cropper]

The type of batteries you found would be zinc-carbon which also contain manganese oxide and ammonium chloride. None of the above ingredients are toxic in the ammounts you'd have in your garden and if you removed the batteries anyway the amounts would be negligible. Grow what you want and don't worry.

[Markw]

I don't think you should be to worried as they are not old car batteries, but if you like and to be on the safe side
you could remove some of the soil around the area, just dig some soil out where your found them, dig down about a foot and renew it with some fresh soil. most contamination travels downwards. I have had to remove thousands of tons off some construction sites in the past. one was and old scrap metal yard.