In mid-August, Portland Public Schools sent out an alarming email: The district warned staff and families to avoid eating any produce grown in school gardens.

The concern grew out of the fact that many PPS schools recently had been found to have water supplies contaminated with lead.

The fear was that if the gardens had been irrigated with lead- contaminated water, vegetables grown in them might have dangerous levels of lead.

But the warning was short-lived.  Just a few days later, the district backtracked after the Oregon Health Authority said that even if the gardens had used water with lead, garden plants “do not absorb significant quantities of lead.”  

It cautioned that people should wash the vegetables and their hands to reduce lead exposure, but the produce should be fine to consume.

Lincoln gardening teacher Laura Armstrong explained the science behind it all.

“All of the scientific research shows that it’s actually OK to eat the vegetables even if it’s been watered with water containing lead, because that lead stays in the soil, it’s not taken up by the plants,” she said.

Still, she sees the brief-lived alarm as an valuable experience.  She said she plans to add mulch in the gardens maintained by her gardening classes for the first time to “bind the lead.”

She also said she plans on getting the water used in the gardens professionally tested and is considering having the classes test it as well for a lesson.

Learn more about the gardening class here.