Youth Updates

Who said you couldn’t soil test without a license?
Local Y.O.U. students work with E.P.A. officials on Slavic Village Pilot Project

By: Sandie Garrison

On the back of a pickup truck, tall, clear, plastic tubes filled with dirt are cut open to determine the future potential of vacant lands. Environmental Protection Agency (E.P.A.) officials are doing a pilot project with Y.O.U students from Slavic Village to “adaptively reduce storm water runoff and improve water quality in an urban watershed.”

Y.O.U is a nonprofit organization that was founded in 1982. It focuses on youth workforce development in Cuyahoga County and serves teenagers aged 14-18, specifically those at risk. From June 20th through August 12th, several hundred students across the county are paid to work 20 hours a week for organizations in the Cleveland area. This summer, eight students are working with Slavic Village Development (SVD), a nonprofit community development corporation serving the Broadway and Slavic Village neighborhoods. The students’ tasks with SVD span from planting and harvesting in Willow Garden to selling produce at the Broadway Farmers’ Market and painting vacant houses. This past week, two Y.O.U. students worked with the E.P.A to conduct soil tests on vacant properties on East 72nd Street, off Union.

According to Russ Losco, a private soil scientist from Cedarville Engineering, LLC, subcontracted to work on the project, the purpose of soil testing is to learn what type of soil is underground, or “underfoot.” Determining the properties of soils is important because it can lead to the implementation of green infrastructure techniques like rain gardens while preventing sewage backup and pollution.

“In a city like Cleveland, an older city, the storm sewer and the sanitary sewer…are the same pipe, and it all goes to the sewage treatment plant,” said Losco. “So when you get a big rain, one of those big thunderstorms that lasts for a couple of hours, too much water is going to the sewer plant and the sewer plant can’t handle it. So the overflow, a mixture of storm water and sewage, goes out into Lake Erie and pollutes the lake. And that’s a problem. Then you have to shut down the beaches, people can’t swim, it’s bad for the fish, and the city gets fined when that happens because they are violating their discharge permit.”

However, Losco explained, “if we can take that storm water and put it into these vacant lots, and infiltrate that water into the ground…then we can divert that storm water from the sewage treatment plant,” which prevents overflow and saves the city a lot of money. This is why some of us are testing whether the soil in this lot is permeable to water, he said.

Deion Brown, a rising 9th grader at Jane Addams Business Career Center, assisted Losco by analyzing soil sample cores that were pulled from the ground using a hydraulic machine called a Geoprobe®. He likes this project because his favorite subject is Earth Science. “The ultimate purpose is for the water from the rain to go into the holes and build the soil up,” he said, referring to the group’s hope that the soil in the lot will be permeable and able to drain water naturally.

Losco and Deion also conducted physical investigations of soil quality because if the soil is suitable, the storm water collected in the ground could be used to support community gardens and mini parks. To analyze the soil, Losco used a metal blade to cut open a plastic core filled with dirt. Then he leveled the dirt with the blade and sprayed it with water. Laying measurement tape next to the core, he noted that the soil at the bottom of the core was darker than soil at that depth was normally.

The color and the texture of the core tell the history of the land within the vacant lot, he explained, so in this case, we know that at one point humans filled the lot with new soil. Knowing this type of information allows the city to plan for future projects dependent on soil quality. “It is important to know what your resources are, where your rock is, where your water is, so you can plan properly,” said Steve Dadio, a fellow Cedarville soil scientist.

Marcus Wright, a rising 8th grader at Willow K-8 Elementary School, also worked with the E.P.A last week. His job was to hammer a rod into the ground to test the refusal of the soil. First Marcus and his supervisor, Larry Lins of the Cleveland E.P.A, made a sketch of the lot for that workday. Then they laid measuring tape down in the shape of an x going across the whole yard. They used the x to define points where they hammered a rod into the soil, and then pulled the rod out and measured how far it had gone down. “We give it 30 whacks [each time],” Lins said. So far, he has had everything from 4 to 63 centimeters of depth—a range that shows the difference in the softness of the soil. “[The numbers tell] us…the relative density and whether or not [the soil is] easily penetrable,” he remarked.

Marcus was enthusiastic about his work on the project and with the Y.O.U. program. “When I get older and someone looks at my résumé, they’ll see that I have experience in what I like to do… working outside, landscaping, and volunteering,” he said.

Sasha Hope, the Y.O.U supervisor and coordinator from Slavic Village Development, said she thought what the students were doing was “great.”

“I really like that we are working close to some of the neighborhoods where some of the Y.O.U. [students] live,” she said. “I think it’s really powerful to be able to work in your own neighborhood and see a difference that you are making yourself.”

This is the first in a series of three articles about the work experiences of Y.O.U students at Slavic Village Development. The author, Sandie Garrison, is a Y.O.U. participant who graduated from Health Careers Center this past school year. She will be continuing her education at Cuyahoga Community College for Nursing.