Marcos Miller, an Elementary School SoPo Teacher, and Long-time Resident of the Hill, Working on His Gaden PLot at the North Street Community Garden Today.

A Sign on a Plot at the North Street Community Garden on Munjoy Hill.

The soil at the North Street Community Garden was tested last week by TRC, the city’s environmental contractor, according to a comprehensive statement received today from Silvan Shawe, Executive Director for Cultivating Gardens.

Also tested at the same time were Casco Bay, Boyd Street and Payson Park gardens, because of past land use concerns.  All of the city’s eleven (11) gardens will be tested eventually.  Results of the soil tests should be available in the next two weeks and the results distributed.

Recent Libbyrown soil test results revealed the presence of arsenic and benzola(a)pyrene  (BaP) in limited areas of the garden soil.  The garden has been closed while Cultivating Gardens  is working to install a soil barrier and raised beds to replace the existing growing space in the garden.  BaP is a type of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH).  According to the Center for Disease Control for Prevention, PAHS are a class of chemicals that accrue naturally in coal, crude oil and gasoline.  Contamination can result from burning coal, oil, gas, wood and garbage.  Arsenic is a naturally occuring element found in soil and minerals.  According to the National Institutes of Health, arsenic can also be released via the use of pesticides, smelting operations, burning of cotton wastes and fallout from the burning of fuel.

“We have a very diverse community of gardners who rely on the food grown in these spaces.  These gardens are a true community effort and labor of love.  We are working with the Libbytown Neighborhood Association, the city and gardners to rebuild the Libbytown Community Garden.  Anyone wanting to get involved can come to help rebuild the garden on June 1 from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm.  We need volunteers to help fill the new raised beds with clear soil and donations to support the rebuild.  Everyone is welcome to come join us,” said Silvan Shawe.

It was a perfect day to be working in a garden today, but only Marcos Miller and his wife were seen working in the North Street Community Garden. That was a suggestion that perhaps some of the gardners were pausing in their gardening until the results of the tests were available. Miller said he’d learned about the issue two weeks ago from Cultivating Community.  “I’ve been gardening here for 12 years.  I’m not going to start worrying about it now,” he said.

In addition to being a gardner and resident of Munjoy Hill, Miller is also a principal in the Franklin Street Redesign Plan; a Plan that he introduced to city officials about 15 years ago.  However, partially because of lack of funds, the Plan was scuttled by city hall.  The Plan was recently reactivated  because of the availability of federal funds from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Miller said.

Miller said that the city should be issuing an RFP for a consultant soon.  The selected consultant would be responsible to finalize the Franklin Street Redeisgn Plan.  The amount available is $250,000;  Half of those funds will come from the city and half from the state.  The selected consultant will finalize the Plan for submission to the feds for funds to finance the Franklin Street Redesign Plan.  Miller went on to explain that part of the available funding is through the Infrastructure Law with a goal of repairing the damage done by urban renewal.  It was urban renewal back in the 1960s that removed a vibrant housing community and created Franklin Street – all in the name of “progress.”

Miller said that according to a housing study conducted last year, under the current zoning laws, 1,000 units of housing could be constructed there.  Building only affordable housing, the city of Portland would be the recipient of at least $3 million in property taxes.  And maybe there would be fewer homeless people in Portland.

Cultivating Community is working with the state soil scientist, NRCS, UMaine extension and others to get as much information as possible about the perennials planted around all of the city’s community gardens said Silvan Shawe, Executive Director, in his statement issued this morning.

For more background information on the Franklin Street Redesign Plan, please visit post herein dated February 26, 2024.