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Found railroad times under the soil
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Posted by
caziel four (
My Page) on
Wed, May 9, 12 at 17:17
| I am in the process of reworking and old flower/raspberry bed into a veg garden. In digging out a volunteer tree I came across an old railroad tie under the soil. It appears to have been there for some time and has partially decayed. It was nailed to a cut piece of lumber that is not disintegrated at all. I have since found a second of the exact same setup. My questions is. What do I do so that I can plant veg in the area? CAN I plant veg there or is the soil contaminated? Can I do anything to amend the soil??
Thanks |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Found railroad times under the soil
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- Posted by lonmower zone8 Western Oregon (My Page) on
Wed, May 9, 12 at 17:45
| a recent thread on the vegetable gardening forum |
Here is a link that might be useful: read this
RE: Found railroad times under the soil
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| Thanks Lonmower, interesting info to ponder on that thread. |
RE: Found railroad times under the soil
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| Indeed. I could not help posting a few thoughts myself. |
RE: Found railroad times under the soil
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| toxcrusadr, Knowing your line of work, your words are very reassuring... the ties I found have been underground for quit a while... to the point where they are disintegrating. There were yellow ants living in it (I have never seen yellow ants before! A first.) The worms in the area are plump and happy... I am thinking that disintegration indicates they have been down there a rather long time. I am also thinking the ants and worms wouldn't want to live there with it if it was bad soil... there is plenty of other soil available to them in my yard without ties in it... I plan on adding some nice organic soil with manure to the soil that is already there and giving it a go.. Thanks for your insights. |
RE: Found railroad times under the soil
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| If that were my yard/garden, I would remove the soil that was directly around the railroad ties. It's not hard to do. The soil could easily be relocated to someplace else in the yard where it won't present a problem, or it could be sent to the landfill. Seems like a pretty easy remedy. |
RE: Found railroad times under the soil
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| You said you had fat earth worms? Theres your answer... |
RE: Found railroad times under the soil
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| Your major problem with using Raiload Ties in the garden is you making contact. If any creosote does leach form those RR ties it will not migrate more than about 6 inches from the ties and your plants will not uptake any of it. In your case there is probably not any creosote left in the ties, it is in the soil. Your exposure to any creosote would be by ingestion, most likely by licking your hands after diging in the area, not from eating any food growing there. |
RE: Found railroad times under the soil
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| Blaze, sarcasm or was my simple guess on to something? Thanks |
RE: Found railroad times under the soil
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| Just fyi, got a response back from my local county extension. Their advice is to remove the soil and replace it but only after testing the soul and finding contamination. No contamination, according to them and planting is good to go. I read on another thread that the testing won't find such contaminates anyway... Thoughts? |
RE: Found railroad times under the soil
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The primary methods of exposure to creosote are contact with your skin which allows the stuff to be absorbed, ingestion if you eat soil contaminated with creosote, or maybe inhalation of someone is dumb enough to be burning the material.
The linked article may provide some information. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Dangers of creosote
RE: Found railroad times under the soil
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| kimmsr is right,low levels in the soil you grow plants in are not very likely to affect you because the stuff would have to be taken up by plants, then taken up by you from what you eat. Neither of those processes are very efficient. Think tiny percentages multiplied by each other. As mentioned, if you're concerned about it you can certainly remove a couple inches around each tie and dispose of it. Lab tests would have to be specialized for creosote components. This would not be done as part of a standard soil test, it requires special extraction and analysis methods and costs probably north of $100 per sample. I would not make the investment for what you're looking at there. JMHO. |
RE: Found railroad times under the soil
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| caziel. I just really love earth worms. Plus I think you might be on to something:-) I think you have a right to worry but at this point Id say youll be OK |
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