Sustainable Technologies to Mitigate Health Risk from Lead-Contaminated Residential Soils

Drs. Datta will provide an overview of the outcomes and lessons learned from HUD LTS-funded projects to develop a chemically catalyzed phytoremediation method to mitigate soil lead from residential properties in urban areas. The HUD-funded targeted community health study led by Dr. Hettiarachchi is designed to measure the effectiveness of in situ stabilization treatments in reducing lead bioaccessibility in urban soils. Objectives include: identifying cost-effective protocols to manage commonly elevated urban soil lead; determining the efficacy of mitigation; and building community capacity to target these protocols. Ms. Lueckenhoff will talk about using biochar as a treatment technology for remediating lead-contaminated soils in urban areas. Benefits include cost-effectiveness, improving soil health, water retention, and promoting microbial activity. Implementing biochar treatment along with green infrastructure contributes to a circular economy, creates equitable local job opportunities, and enables greater community resilience. Dr. Buckley will talk about the value of academia-community partnerships in creating targeted and individualized remediation/intervention strategies for impacted residents using the partnership between Rutgers and the East Trenton Collaborative, Lead Free NJ, and Isles in East Trenton as an example. East Trenton is an environmental justice community with a legacy of industrial lead contamination in residential soils.