Soil Remediation by FungiFix

Green space, park access, and trees

Pilot or new project, program, or initiative (testing or implementing a new idea)

Industrial soil pollution has impacted Los Angeles for far too long, especially in communities left without protection from environmental injustice. Improper storage and disposal of toxic chemicals leaves soil around the country contaminated by various carcinogens and volatile organic compounds, which causes many issues for average Americans, landowners, and the government. If contaminated sites are left unattended, the hazardous chemicals can seep into groundwater aquifers. Exposure to these hazardous chemicals is detrimental to public health, leading to various cancers and causing damage to the liver, kidneys, or central nervous system. Without significant remediation, hazardous contamination can make land very difficult to be repurposed. Existing remediation techniques are invasive, expensive, and lengthy to complete fully, resulting in many companies leaving the sites unattended and forcing the government to incur the cost of remediation on their own.

This grant will support FungiFix’s soil remediation pilot program, which uses mycoremediation (a mushroom’s ability to detoxify soil naturally) to clean up contaminated soil in South Central LA. Our project targets communities impacted by environmental injustice at the hands of large industrial polluters, a prevalent issue in many areas of Los Angeles. Using mushrooms instead of heavy, invasive machinery for soil remediation limits the cost and environmental impact of traditional remediation techniques. Smaller crews and no heavy machinery make cultivating and planting the mushrooms a minimally invasive remediation technique, as the mushrooms essentially do the heavy lifting of cleanup. After the mushrooms decontaminate the soil, our crew will harvest them and blend them into a concrete mix to create bricks that we intend to sell for use on low-income housing projects in the same communities that we have helped remediate. The concrete mix locks up any residual contaminants the mushrooms have not processed and provides a more sustainable alternative to existing construction materials all within industry safety standards. Once the land is remediated and the mushrooms are harvested, the land can be safely returned back to the community for public park space, urban agriculture, forestry, or any purpose the community deems important to them.

If our work is successful, Los Angeles County will be a cleaner, greener, and safer place to live. While we are targeting small businesses and community organizations for our pilot clean-up sites, we hope to expand to larger government locations and potentially even superfund sites to aid or replace existing remediation techniques that no longer make environmental or economic sense. Over 25,000 acres of contaminated land in Los Angeles could use our services to be transformed from hazardous contaminated lands into beautiful parks and flourishing community spaces. Additionally, our mushroom-concrete blended bricks will contribute to a Los Angeles with fewer unhoused families and individuals and generally create more affordable, sustainable housing for all residents of LA.

Success will be defined by achieving thresholds of contaminant removal efficiencies aligned with government and industry safety standards and regulations, similar to traditional remediation methods while minimizing economic, social, and environmental costs. To assess remediation effectiveness, we will utilize standardized soil testing equipment to measure contaminants before and after. Additionally, biological indicators, including biodiversity, will be used to evaluate environmental health. Economic success factors will include cost-efficiency, land value changes post-remediation, and return on investment. We will also gauge community impact by collecting feedback from local communities regarding the perceived success and impact of remediation. For the mushroom-concrete bricks made as an end product, we define success by their affordability, scalability, carbon footprint, and compliance with safety standards.