Where I live there is a rather large lake in a county park which will be
drained in the near future.The lake is fed by a couple of streams that
drains the surrounding countryside which has very little farming. It is a
suburban area recently created. I was wondering if it would be a good idea
to use soil or silt from that lake for my garden. I am sure they will test
the soil for hazardous materials, and if there are not any would it be like
fertilizer for the garden. Thanks.

Tom

It's a shame the county is taking out the lake. It would be nice if
people would concentrate on restoring and preserving nature rather than
replacing it with aggregate.

If the soil were to become available and it was not toxic, I would think
the material might better be used for fill rather than a fertilizing
supplement. It will also depend on what type of sediment has been
deposited in the lake. Ask the county if they are going to do a soil
analysis. If not, and they'll let you haul off copious ammounts, you
might want to check the composition of the material out and pershaps
with a soil analysis yourself. If you are feeding yourself with a
garden, it would pay to be prudent with a situation like this.


mary wrote:
=

Where I live there is a rather large lake in a county park which will b=
e
drained in the near future.The lake is fed by a couple of streams that
drains the surrounding countryside which has very little farming. It is=
a
suburban area recently created. I was wondering if it would be a good =
idea
to use soil or silt from that lake for my garden. I am sure they will t=
est
the soil for hazardous materials, and if there are not any would it be =
like
fertilizer for the garden. Thanks.
=

Tom

-- =

J Kolenovsky, A+, Network +, MCP
=F4=BF=F4 - http://www.celestialhabitats.com
=F4=BF=F4 - http://www.hal-pc.org/~garden/reference.html

On Sun, 26 Jan 2003 12:04:08 -0600, J Kolenovsky wrote:

It's a shame the county is taking out the lake. It would be nice if
people would concentrate on restoring and preserving nature rather than
replacing it with aggregate.

The original poster didn't say the lake was being taken out - merely drained.
There are several reasons that this might be done:

1) A state park nearby drained their lake to allow the building of a boat
dock.

2) Repair work may be needed on the dam.

3) Around here it is not an uncommon practice to drain small lakes, dig them
out to increase water depth, then refill. If you don't, eventually the lake
will fill in completely.

I too, would want a soil test on the silt removed prior to putting it into my
landscape.

There are several reasons that this might be done:

They have drained the lake across from me for dredging and increasing the
depth. I too thought that this soil might make a good garden additive. I
checked with the local extension agent and he explained that the soil from this
lake (because it is in the city and gets run off from streets at times) would
be toxic to my garden. It has salts, heavy metals, pesticides, anti-freeze,
etc. The dredging is to remove these deposits and make the environment
healthier for plant and animal life.
sed5555