CHICAGO, Ill. — Miniature farms are popping up at

old industrial sites in big cities across the nation,

including Chicago. Urban gardens are nothing new,

but they seem to be gaining momentum with help from

Uncle Sam.

The U.S. EPA just announced $11 million in additional

funding to clean up and redevelop contaminated

brownfield sites throughout the nation. Most of the

brownfield sites targeted for remediation are attached

to plans for new construction of homes and businesses;

however, a smaller percentage of the funds are used

to help clean up old industrial sites in urban areas to

grow fresh produce.

In Chicago, for example, $400,000 of additional funds

recently allocated will be used to make a century-old

industrial property suitable for growing vegetables and

put up an anaerobic digester to turn food scraps into a

rich soil supplement for urban gardens, said Steve

Colantino, manager of the Office of Brownfields

Assistance for the EPA in Illinois out of Springfield.

Colantino said the EPA at both the federal and state

levels become involved in urban gardens whenever

municipalities and not-for-profit groups seek financial

assistance to grow produce for their communities at

brownfield sites. The first step is to determine the past

use of the property and have it tested for contaminants,

then develop strategies for any cleanup that needs to

occur, for the ground to become safe for human contact.

Typically, Colantino said, urban gardens don’t have

direct contact with the soil already in the ground, to

eliminate any concerns about growing crops. Instead,

plastic is laid over the remediated area, then clean soil

is put on top to provide a buffer to prevent the potential

for leaching of any remaining contaminants into

the roots of the crops.

A wooden frame is then built along the edges of the

plastic to serve as a containment area for the garden,

he said. Contaminated soils are still cleaned up to

avoid contact with people walking over to work the garden

and harvest the produce.

“They want to make sure the site is environmentally

suitable for the purpose that they have in mind,” said

Colantino.

The urban garden is planned on a 30-acre site owned

by Trinity Lutheran Church at 95th Street and Cottage

Grove Avenue on Chicago’s south side. There’s already

a hydroponic research center operated by the

University of Chicago on the grounds of the church

property. The remainder of the 13 acres will be used for

health services and assisted living facilities.

Colantino said urban gardens help provide fresh produce

to areas where fruits and vegetables at the supermarket

are unaffordable, or in areas where people lack

transportation to reach grocery stores that nowadays

are becoming fewer and further away.

“Access to fresh produce is recognized as a real issue

to urban garden communities,” he explained. Other

benefits include residents being taught gardening skills

for tending their assigned plots.

The digester will go up also on the south side of

Chicago on 83rd Street. Colantino said the not-forprofit

Green ERA is working with city officials to bring

food scraps to the digester, to convert the waste into a

nutrient-rich soil supplement for urban gardens close

to home – and in more distant locations.

“They have outlets in the Midwest already lined up for

this soil stock,” said Colantino.

Remediated brownfield sites also produce returns in

other ways, such as job creation and, in most cases, revenue

from being put back on property tax rolls, he said.

According to U.S. EPA officials, investments by the agency

in brownfields have leveraged more than $21 billion in

cleanup and redevelopment funding from public and private

sources. On average, $17.79 is leveraged for every

EPA grant dollar spent on such projects, officials added.