Sunflowers Project New Orleans

Sunflowers
Project
New
Orleans
Presented by:
Danielle M. Purifoy, Mayoral
Fellow
Office of Recovery and
Development Administration
May 15, 2008
What we know…
• New Orleans is among the leading cities in the country for cases
of childhood lead poisoning.
• Childhood lead poisoning has been attributed to lowering of IQ
and a number of neurological disorders that can negatively affect
the way children learn.
• According to a research article published by lead specialist Dr.
Howard Mielke in 2006, data collected from ten census tracts
confirmed median surface soil lead ≥ 1000 mg/kg. In
accordance with these findings, 20-30% of inner city in preKatrina New Orleans had elevated blood lead levels ≥ 10µg/dL.
• The sources of lead contamination in New Orleans include:
– Dated housing stock (built pre-1970s)
– Industrial waste
– Accumulation of lead in air, soil, and water from leaded gasoline
over the last century, and even today, as unleaded gasoline still
contains approximately 1.1 grams per gallon.
What we want to know…
• Impact. We want to expand the statistics on lead poisoning
in New Orleans beyond cases for children between 0-6
years old, so that we can begin to understand the impact
this problem has on our entire population.
• Solutions. Methods of greater coordination between the
Department of Environmental Health/Childhood Lead
Poisoning Prevention Center and Housing/Neighborhood
Development, and various clinics and healthcare providers
across the city to unify efforts of medical treatment for
lead poisoning and remediation of contaminated
properties.
What we want to see…
• Wholistic approach to inspection and identification of lead
hazards.
• Feasible methods of remediation
– Top soil removal
– Paint/soil encapsulation
– Phytoremediation
• Research that merges science and aesthetics
– Provide critical data to determine capacity of sunflowers
and other plants to remove lead from soil.
– Convert blighted or abandoned properties into gardens for
both research and neighborhood beautification.
What we want to see…
• Community Engagement
–
–
–
–
Volunteers
Local businesses
Schools/Colleges/Universities
Government
• Building Community Capacity. We want to place the tools
for localized remediation into the hands of all residents and
community organizations. We want to use the power of the
grassroots to help to educate and empower our citizens to take
control over the environmental health of their homes and their
communities.
What we did…
Spring 2007: Office of
Recovery received an inkind
donation of 10,000 sunflower
seedballz from the Oregon
based vendor,
Gardenbasket.com for the
purpose of lead remediation.
October 2007: Office of
Recovery assembled a group of
scientists, gardeners, and
professors to discuss the scope
of the project and its
implications for the lead
remediation efforts of the City.
What we did…
December 2007: The
Sunflowers Team
identified a vacant
property at 1237-1241
Oretha Castle Haley
Blvd that was
available on loan from
Café Reconcile.
What we did…
• January 2008:
Finalized protocol for soil
testing, planting, and
harvesting phytormediation
gardens using sunflowers.
• March 2008: Finalized
Sunflowers Team and
stakeholders group for
Earth Day installation of
the O.C. Haley remediation
garden.
Sunflowers Team:
Dr. Lovell Agwaramgbo, Dillard University
Ms. Bettie Abbate, Delgado Community College
Pam Broom, Community Outreach Liasion
Ms. Ginger Fortson, Delgado Community College
Café Reconcile
What we did…
April 22, 2008:
The Sunflowers Team, in cooperation
with many community
organizations and businesses
installed the first remediation
garden of the Sunflowers Project
New Orleans.
The remediation garden consists of
nine sunflower research plots
(10ftx20ft), five foot
walkways/buffer zones on the
periphery and in between the plots,
and a periphery garden for
beautification.
Earth Day 2008
Next Steps…
• Three cycles of sunflowers will be planted and
harvested at the O.C. Haley site, with soil tests
preceding each planting and following each harvest.
• The initial soil tests at the site indicated varying
amounts of lead, mostly at or below EPA-safe levels
(400mg/kg), but there have been many indications
that soil lead levels even below 400mg/kg can place
children at risk for lead poisoning.
• The city will soon be accepting proposals through an
RFP process for other teams that would like to create
phytormediation gardens across the city with a
Community Development Block Grant.