By Van Stone vspfoundation@yahoo.com (610) 931-8810
Officer Tyrone Fitzgerald, Environmental
Redevelopment Leader. A Fostergrandparent
Stakeholder serving West Philly and DarbyTownship
areas.
Fostergrandparents and local community leaders are preparing to help middle school students plant grass on Philadelphia and Delaware County land tainted by oil pollution. Many parents are tired of seeing any inner-city neighborhood closed gas stations, crumbling industrial buildings, and old shuttered warehouses. It’s the Fosterparent Stakeholders who are educating kids that these abandoned commercial sites are called brownfields. And something should be done by youth about these eyesores.
Brownfields can contain contaminants that can be harmful to people and animals living nearby. An abandoned gas station, for example, may have a leaking underground storage tank. Many communities in West Philly, Chester, Darby Township, and Wilmington face the problem of abandoned gas stations. And Fostergrandparent Stakeholders want youngsters to know that the chemicals seeping out can pollute the soil and drinking water.
Community leaders interested in greening are trying to draw more attention to brownfields because they notice green spaces in their neighborhoods giving way to new construction while abandoned commercial sites sit untouched. Youth are being encouraged to look at this as a science project that will help clean up brownfields so the land could be transformed into parks, housing developments, or youth business areas.
Many youths can have something to do by joining in learning whether plants could help remove oil pollution from soil. One of the common contaminants around is called Petroleum. And the use of plants to remove toxins from the environment can be a fun activity for youth helping them to avoid just hanging out on the street corners. Cleaning up these sites usually requires removing all of the contaminated soil and taking it to a toxic waste facility. But as Fostergrandparent Stakeholders see it there must be a least expensive way for participants to do this before a long-term project like this is started.
Phytoremediation, the use of plants to remove toxins from the environment, offers a low and green alternative. Growing plants at industrial sites helps keep toxic dirt in place so the contamination can’t spread into the surrounding environment. The plants can also remove chemicals, such as dangerous heavy metals, from the environment by absorbing them. And youth can be taught about how bacteria that live on plant roots can break down organic carbon based pollutants like oil.
Different grasses can work to help clean up contamination. One such grass is called rye grass. If youth get the assistance from community leaders and partners to plant rye grass seeds or fescue grass seeds in contaminated soil they will soon see a change in the abandoned gas stations’ brownfields. These two grass varieties are most often found in lawns. It might take about six weeks for the grass to grow dissolving significant amount of oil from the soil. Youth can change their feelings about having nothing to do if and when they are able to work along with businesses that know much about ground maintenance and green thumb work.
Fostergrandparent Stakeholders want to spread the word about applying this simple yet effective cleanup activity to brownfields. Philadelphia in particular could use some grass planting because it has been working on turning many unused spaces into usable land.
There is a high level need for revitalizing neighborhoods by curbing messy dirt, protecting public health more, and going greeener. Youth can get the word out faster about environmental issues and ask for support from local leaders to bring in funding so that they can get paid to do this type of activity in stead of having nothing to do. Anyone interested in working to support the grandparents in this can call (610) 931-8810.
