Resilient Palisades To Begin Bioremediation Campaign to Reduce Soil Toxins

By Laurel Busby

News & Information Editor

Resilient Palisades, a volunteer group focused on ecological and climate issues, will soon begun a bioremediation campaign to address soil contamination from the January fires.

The campaign, which will run for a year beginning next month, received a $100,000 grant from the California Community Foundation Wildfire Recovery & Resilience Program to aid the communities of both Pacific Palisades and Altadena in improving fire-polluted soil, according to board member Valeria Serna. Part of their effort will involve gathering protocols for both testing and bioremediation techniques, such as adding fungi, bacteria, and varied microorganisms to the soil. The campaign will also develop workshops and materials that can provide guidance for individual homeowners as they work to solve their soil issues.

Serna, who does soil remediation for three local homes as part of her work as their property manager, is helping to coordinate the bioremediation campaign. Before the fires, she volunteered to do soil remediation with Dr. Danielle Stevenson of the Center for Applied Ecological Remediation (CAER), and Stevenson will be one of the experts consulted for the new campaign.

Soil remediation requires “a whole recipe and a whole process,” Serna said. “It’s vital to do testing. There are some claims that if you just add compost and mulch, you’re good, or if you plant sunflowers seeds. It’s not to say those don’t help, but if it was that simple, the planet would be far different. It’s the right combination. It’s adding the right fungi, the right bacteria, the right microorganism combinations.”

As part of her bioremediation research, Stevenson has used mycelium, a web filament of mushrooms that can digest heavy metals in order to break them down to their smallest forms, so that plants can then draw them from the soil, Serna said. If the soil isn’t tested first, then the bioremediation can’t be targeted to the particular pollutants that might be problems, which can include a range of substances, such as lead, arsenic, dioxin, and varied synthetic chemicals. In addition, each environment has a different biome, so it’s vital to use the right types of fungi and microorganisms for the Palisades in order to ensure that the introduction of a non-native mushroom or organism doesn’t overtake the local microbiology.

While Altadena’s soil has been found to have higher rates of toxic pollutants than the Palisades based on initial testing, the Palisades was found to have some contaminated hot spots in testing conducted by Los Angeles County. Since FEMA has not provided testing post-debris removal, it’s unclear precisely how many Palisades homes might still have elevated levels of toxins in their soil.

To address these issues, Resilient Palisades is convening a consortium in partnership with CAER  and Eaton Fire Residents United (EFRU) of both community groups and nonprofits. . Serna said they plan to gather advice from mycologists, environmental toxicologists, and horticulturalists, then advise the community about their findings through workshops and materials in September.

Until then, residents can get free testing in the following ways:

1)    USC’s Contaminant Level Evaluation and Analysis for Neighborhoods (CLEAN) program offers free soil testing for lead and tests some samples for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. To learn how to gather and submit a sample from your home, visit this link (https://publicexchange.usc.edu/la-wildfire-soil-testing/) and fill out the form on this page https://usc.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eQnjDbriePjRwGy.

2)    Community Action Project-Los Angeles (CAP.LA), funded by the R & S Kayne Foundation led by Canyon resident Saree Kayne, provides free testing of soil and pool water to homes in and near the burn zones, although they have begun narrowing their focus and will not necessarily approve each applicant. Professors from Loyola Marymount University, UCLA, and Purdue University are overseeing the research. Their soil testing enrollment form can be found at this link: https://academics.lmu.edu/studyla/communityactionprojectla/

3)    Residents can also test for lead in their blood through the county. Request a free test through Quest Labs—(800) LA-4-LEAD.

Private labs also offer paid soil testing, and two that Serna has used are:

1)    SunStar Laboratories, Inc. https://www.sunstarlabs.com/

2)    Environmental Testing Associates https://www.etatesting.com/

More information about Stevenson’s bioremediation work, including a webinar is available here: https://caer.earth/.