Getting The Dirt On Urban Garden Contamination: Environmental Monitoring In The University Of Arizona Community Garden
Presenter: Nandita Parekh1
Co-Author(s): -
Advisor(s): Dr. Monica Ramirez-Andreotta
1Department of Environmental Science, University of Arizona
The University of Arizona Community Garden is an organically-grown community garden located within an urban university campus in Tucson, Arizona (1400 Mabel St.). The Garden was historically a residential site and is now located near ongoing construction, a parking garage, and several major, and often heavily congested, roads. This suggests potential soil and water contamination at the site. Although the Garden has been in operation since 2012, there has been no known environmental quality monitoring. Based on the site’s history, three categories of potential contaminants of concern (COC) were identified as metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The objective of this research is to quantify the concentrations of COC in soil and harvested rainwater to create a baseline of environmental quality data for the Garden and an evaluation of risk to human health. Ten soil samples and three harvested rainwater samples were collected and analyzed for levels of the COC using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS), and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Preliminary results of metals analysis for water media indicates no exceedance of screening levels nor maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) for these COC. A more comprehensive data analysis for this project is ongoing and will be presented in person.