Something icky poured in the garden.

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paulagremley Skokie, IL Apr 13, 2015

We are in a new house and when I went to prepared a new garden bed (clearing weeds etc) I smelled a very icky smell. I believe someone poured turpentine or some similar chemical into the garden. What is the best way to decontaminate the area? I plan to dig up as much earth that I can determine is contaminated and soak the area with clean water. The stinky top soil is about a foot in diameter. The bed sits on a base of sand so drainage is straight down and good. Any advice is welcome. Argh, what bone head pours chemicals in the garden?

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Sequoiadendron4 Lititz, PA(Zone 6b) Apr 15, 2015

I don't have any advice for you other than perhaps a Google search. What you're doing sounds like a good start. I mostly wanted to say that it was probably someone from a previous generation who dumped it in the soil. I'm a 'millennial' and I find that my parents' generation and prior (generally speaking) didn't care much for the environment. I know a guy my age who's Dad used to change the oil in his Harleys and have him pour the used oil into the soil between their garage and the neighbor's. This was a regular practice when he was really young. Eventually his Dad started storing it in a container and brought it to a recycling facility when it was full. It's crazy that stuff used to happen all the time.

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rd8005 Eldridge, IA(Zone 5a) Apr 28, 2015

paulagremley: Do you live in Skokie or do you live in rural Skokie? If you live in Skokie you may be able to contact the city and see if they have a composting facility. If they do, they may be able to answer some of your question of disposal of contaminated soil and what is the best way to go about doing that. If you live in rural Skokie check to see if there is a USDA office in the county that assist with the farm community. They may be able to give you some ideas as well. Also, I would check on line Google a question - How to remove contaminated soil. See what pops up.
I agree digging down deep and removing the soil is the best thing to do. Once you have done that, then you can start over from scratch with some fresh clean soil.

Good luck.

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