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#1
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Old Railway Land - Veggie Plot
Hi all,
I'm buying some land that was previously (about 50 yrs ago) part of a small branch line. I'm hoping to develop the land into a garden and veggie plot. Who/what should I use to test the soil for heavy metals or oil/diesel products to make sure my veggies are fit for human consumption? Is there a home test kit approach, or am I best to get the pro's in? Many thanks Dan |
#2
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Old Railway Land - Veggie Plot
There are no home tests kits.
If you want to test the soil for heavy metals etc, have a look in the Yellow Pages under Laboratory Facilities I you are buying industrial land, you will become responsible for the bioremediation, removal of contaminated soil. If you susspect it to be contaminated, you ought to have the soil tested by a lab first. At a company were I used to work, we were looking to buy an old industrial site, had a soil test done and found it loaded with all sorts. So we left it alone. Would have been mega expensive to clear up. As the land you are looking at was railway, cansider the likely contaminats. By the sounds of it, the line was axed during the Beaching reforms, so most likely that the line was steam. Clifford Bawtry, Doncaster, South Yorkshire |
#3
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Old Railway Land - Veggie Plot
cliff_the_gardener wrote:
There are no home tests kits. If you want to test the soil for heavy metals etc, have a look in the Yellow Pages under Laboratory Facilities I you are buying industrial land, you will become responsible for the bioremediation, removal of contaminated soil. If you susspect it to be contaminated, you ought to have the soil tested by a lab first. At a company were I used to work, we were looking to buy an old industrial site, had a soil test done and found it loaded with all sorts. So we left it alone. Would have been mega expensive to clear up. As the land you are looking at was railway, cansider the likely contaminats. By the sounds of it, the line was axed during the Beaching reforms, so most likely that the line was steam. Clifford Bawtry, Doncaster, South Yorkshire If the price is right, I'd just buy it. They're not making land any more round here. During negotiations you should mutter a lot to the seller about possible contamination, of course, (sulphur from coal waste, engine oil) but go away rejoicing when you've closed the deal: if it was just a strip of branch line where the traffic passed through, I don't see how any nasties would have built up. If it's growing good weeds, it'll grow good garden plants. It's not an ordinary industrial site which might have a couple of hundred years' worth of God knows what in the ground (my mother and her sister had the awful problem of wanting to sell a small factory site they'd inherited, and which had been used for a silver-plating works! It should have been worth a fortune, but...) Nothing will come through into any vegetables you grow. The road bed will be very stony, of course: that will need to be dealt with, partly by adding lots of organic material, but it should mean the site is nicely drained. I think you're probably very lucky to have the chance: if I'd known then what I know now, I'd have bought up a couple of old railway stations when nobody wanted them. -- Mike. |
#4
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Old Railway Land - Veggie Plot
As it was an old branch line, it would have had wooden sleepers which were
generally soaked in Creosote. Would any of that leached into the ground and still be there? Mike -- ------------------------------------------------------------------- "Mike Lyle" wrote in message ... cliff_the_gardener wrote: There are no home tests kits. If you want to test the soil for heavy metals etc, have a look in the Yellow Pages under Laboratory Facilities I you are buying industrial land, you will become responsible for the bioremediation, removal of contaminated soil. If you susspect it to be contaminated, you ought to have the soil tested by a lab first. At a company were I used to work, we were looking to buy an old industrial site, had a soil test done and found it loaded with all sorts. So we left it alone. Would have been mega expensive to clear up. As the land you are looking at was railway, cansider the likely contaminats. By the sounds of it, the line was axed during the Beaching reforms, so most likely that the line was steam. Clifford Bawtry, Doncaster, South Yorkshire If the price is right, I'd just buy it. They're not making land any more round here. During negotiations you should mutter a lot to the seller about possible contamination, of course, (sulphur from coal waste, engine oil) but go away rejoicing when you've closed the deal: if it was just a strip of branch line where the traffic passed through, I don't see how any nasties would have built up. If it's growing good weeds, it'll grow good garden plants. It's not an ordinary industrial site which might have a couple of hundred years' worth of God knows what in the ground (my mother and her sister had the awful problem of wanting to sell a small factory site they'd inherited, and which had been used for a silver-plating works! It should have been worth a fortune, but...) Nothing will come through into any vegetables you grow. The road bed will be very stony, of course: that will need to be dealt with, partly by adding lots of organic material, but it should mean the site is nicely drained. I think you're probably very lucky to have the chance: if I'd known then what I know now, I'd have bought up a couple of old railway stations when nobody wanted them. -- Mike. |
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