Is it safe to grow fruit and vegetables in soil near a former gas station?

What's actually in it

Gas stations leak. For 50+ years of commercial operation, gasoline, motor oil, brake fluid, and solvents soak into the surrounding soil. When stations close and get redeveloped, the soil isn't always remediated to residential standards. Plants grown in that soil absorb PAHs, benzene metabolites, lead, and sometimes PFAS from historic firefighting foam use.

Urban community gardens frequently occupy former commercial lots where the history is unclear.

What the research says

A 2026 review in J Agric Food Chem on food plants contributing to human PFAS intake documented that PFAS from contaminated soil transfer into edible plant tissue efficiently. Leafy vegetables and root crops accumulated the most. Similar logic applies to lead, PAHs, and other legacy contaminants: what's in the soil ends up in the food.

For any new garden site, especially urban, get a soil test. Most state cooperative extensions test for heavy metals cheaply ($25-50). For contaminated soil, raised beds filled with imported clean soil and a barrier of landscape fabric between the native soil and the new soil creates a safe growing zone. Fruit trees with deep roots are the riskiest; herbs and leafy greens in raised beds work well. If soil is heavily contaminated, the city may have a remediation program.