Soil contamination can cause issues with your property in more ways than you might anticipate. It's especially common if your property is located in an urban area. If you see symptoms of soil remediation, you may need site remediation services to address the problem. Here are some of the obvious signs of soil contamination you can look for in your yard.
Patches of Soil Discoloration
Soil can exist in a range of colors based on the components in the dirt and the region of the country where you live. If you see patches of discolored soil that are not typical in your area, you may need to contact a site remediation service. Look for parts of the yard where the soil is darker or has a different consistency than the rest with no obvious reason or source of moisture. In some cases, the soil may be the same color as usual, but have a slimy or wet consistency, even when the rest of the yard is dry. This can indicate that a portion of the yard is contaminated, but it hasn't spread through the yard yet.
Unpleasant Smell
If you smell an unpleasant, unnatural odor when you are out in your yard, especially on hot, dry days, this can be a sign of contamination in the ground. When soil contamination reaches a certain point, it can cause a smell, unlike the typical, natural smell you may be used to living with. The soil may smell like pesticides or chemicals, instead of having the natural smell of earth and grass. In other cases, you may be able to smell the contaminant, like arsenic, which has a signature odor.
Lack of Wildlife and Plant Growth
Most property owners see local wildlife in the yard looking for seeds and grains, from insects and birds to small rodents. But animals are smart and have instincts that will help them avoid soil and plants that contain contaminants. If the ground is contaminated, nothing can take root and flourish the way it can in a healthy patch of soil. The plants that do take hold can absorb toxic substances from the soil and cause harm to animals that do eat them, causing the rest of their pack or flock to stay away. A marked lack of plants and animals in the area can be a sign that you need to be concerned.
Erosion of Soil
Soil erosion happens when the top layer of dirt is displaced unnaturally due to the accelerated degradation of the soil under the ground. A contaminant can cause or accelerate this process, which is evident thanks to holes, dips, or uneven patches in the yard. If you have issues with the topography of your yard and can't find the source, the presence of a contaminant in just one spot can be the cause.
Presence of Contaminated Water
If you've purchased an older property that comes with a pre-installed water tank to supply the house and any irrigation systems, there can be contaminants present in the tank and the existing water supply. These may have built up over time, or they may be due to outdated safety standards that were in place at the time the tank was installed. Before the 1970s, many of the substances we now recognize as harmful were not known to be toxic and therefore were used on many household and industrial items. Some water storage tanks that are currently being used are 100 years old. Over a century, contaminants can build up and eventually leach out of the water tank into the soil. The simplest way to determine whether there are contaminants in the water tank is to have the water tested for the presence of lead and other frequent ground contaminants by a site remediation service.
If you suspect soil contamination on your property, the best thing to do is have a professional site remediation service come in to test the soil and identify exactly what issues and imbalances exist. Soil is composed of a variety of things, including dirt, grass, seeds, mulch, and other types of runoff, and isolating the cause of an issue requires expert assistance. Contact us here at Anco Environmental Service. We are a local site remediation company that has over 40 years of experience that we will put to work for you.
