Question: Does anyone have experience with remediation of contaminated soils? What are some different options?

A combo chemical and phytoremediation example from Mindy who joined the soil research area review kick-off call last week:

"I saw a talk at a conference where they used a "chelating agent" called EDDS and grew plants to take lead out of the soil. The plant he used was called vetiver grass (Chrysopogon zizanioides) and he said you could order it from plant stores. The EDDS "chelating agent" converted bound forms of lead to plant-available forms, and the plants were able to remove enough lead from the soil to make the soils fall below the EPA standards of 400ppm.”

EDDS is closely related to EDTA. The part to be careful of- there are three stereoisomers. Only one(the S,S) is thought to break down well. This is from Wikipedia on today's date (2-9-2021). If purchasing EDDS, please be sure you get the S,S stereo isomer.

Here’s a project involving microbial remediation of sediment in the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn: http://elizabeth-henaff.net/BKBioReactor. Shared by @liz!

Not personally, though I've read about Paul Stamet's work here in the Pacific Northwest and others that have been inspired by him to look into mycoremediation https://depts.washington.edu/dislc/2010winter_mycoremediation/definition.htm

https://ohiostate.pressbooks.pub/sciencebitesvolume2/chapter/3-6-mycoremediation-studies-in-mycelium-as-an-agent-of-bioremediation/

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.3184/095422914X14047407349335

Yes I have worked on remediation of different kinds of contaminants, toxic wastes, and contaminated sites and waters, with fungi, plants, microbes and amendments and lead trainings on this. It really depends on the type and extent of the contamination. For example, hyperaccumulator plants are typically used for extracting metals from soils, and amendments like the EDTA mentioned above or phosphate-rich materials can be applied to 'bind' up metals though not permanently. Decomposer fungi can be used in closed systems to degrade some organic contaminants like diesel oil or PAH's, as can certain bacteria. Often the most successful approaches are holistic and mimic ecology where many different organisms all play a role. An important thing to consider when working on remediation is how you will reduce harm - if you use plants to extract metals, what will you do with the plant material after? There are different ways to assess whether its working. Testing (sending samples to a lab for analysis) before and after treatment is a surefire way to see if its working, but in community settings in the past where I haven't had resources to pay for testing, I have worked with 'bioassays' with bean seeds, worms, or other ways of seeing if toxicity is being reduced. I am including a link to a factsheet on bioremediation I made which includes plant lists for remediation. I have created manuals on myco-remediation that I really need to publish and on other types of remediation. Right now I am working on community studies of ecological /accessible remediation options because there are few case studies to draw on of these options being applied in real world contexts for us to learn from. (https://compost.bc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/19-Bioremediation_no-image.pdf)