Greetings Folks, This is my first post here. Thank you for the opportunity. I live in a small housing co-op in Vancouver. The neighbouring building across the alley was a dry cleaners some years ago. Now that the building is unoccupied there have, on many occasions, been environmental techs (or something of the sort) doing tests. They have not been openly communicative with us about what they are up to. One of our neighbours got some information out of them about toxicity and he is very concerned about his beds and has put in some kind of soil barrier and put in raised beds. We are wondering if we should be concerned and are unsure of the radius of possible contamination, whether we should be getting our soil tested, etc. If anyone has advice we would much appreciate it. Kind Regards, Al
Thanks Michael. Neighbour had a chat with one of the environmental techs the other day and this particular tech was somewhat more cooperative. He says not to be concerned though we can't exactly trust his opinion considering who he works for.
Well if you understand the basics of waterflow in your area it should be easy to see where the toxins would be moved to from rain and soil water flow. If you are down hill from them I would be worried, but if you are on level ground and there is pavement between you and the old building the disconnect caused by that and the underground infrastructure would be sufficient to prevent that. Plant something and if it grows and is healthy and happy I wouldn't worry too much since plants do a very good job of showing stress and toxins in their environment.
Thank you addypalmer. I discussed this with a neighbour who suggested that waterflow wouldn't likely be too bad between the site in question and may place. There is no pavement but there is a gravel alley separating the site from my home. Regards, Al
