The new Skagway community garden may not be ready for plants this season. This is because contamination was found at one of their tests. The municipality must carry out further tests and receive instruction from the State Department of Environmental Conservation before they go forward.
The Jewell Gardens restaurant in Skagway cultivated products and breathtaking flowers in the country next to their business. They rented the municipality's action. When the owner died, the meeting agreed not to extend the land rental contract. The interest of the interest of expanding the tiny community garden through the school. And putting the garden into an already established piece of local property seemed to be a good solution.
But in November the community received some unfortunate news. The new garden position was tested and the results were worrying.
“You have four test pits in and have found – I want to say that it is diesel,” said Borough manager Emily Deach. “… and so they stopped, contacted Dec, talked to Dec about the next steps.”
Dec is the Alaska Department of Conservation. The current Skagway plan is to resume tests and make your contractor with Dec. The contractor would then submit an environmental plan to the municipality.
At this point it is unclear how serious the contamination levels are or whether contamination extends to other places. Skagway has a contamination story. Several areas in the city were contaminated by military activities of the Second World War and the transport of mining materials.
Laura Mabee, who previously supervised the community garden The community did it, said the new website had already been cleaned up. A renovation was subjected to renovation in 2001.
“Eight to 12 feet top floor will be replaced by 2015 and then frequently tested,” said Mabee. “The idea of fixing soil that has been replaced in this village, which is only limited to this place … means that there is a new contamination.”
The topic was discussed during a meeting of the Park and Recreation Committee of April 15th. More than one participant said that contamination could also be present on the municipal ball field that is located under the garden.
The committee considered publishing a warning sign at the new garden office and informed the visitors that the area was examined until December.
In the meantime, the former garden manager emphasized how important it is to edit soil to keep it healthy.
The meeting member Orion Hanson agreed and asked her to go forward as soon as possible.
“I know that there is a lot of enthusiasm, many plans, many employees who were ready to work on it,” he said. “And you know that if this is in order one side of 10 and 90% of the property, we do it. If it is something else, we would like to know.”
The old community garden has 12 properties that are cultivated by Legacy users. At the time of this meeting there were still five plots for rent.
The new garden is expected to housing 50 plots of land.