UC Davis Student Farm managers, campus police and campus environmental experts are arranging for soil tests to determine how the Jan. 17 controlled detonations of small amounts of potentially explosive materials might impact the organic certification for a portion of the farm.

The materials were removed early that day from an apartment in the Russell Park complex, following a small explosion that resulted in the evacuation of several apartment blocks. Bomb experts detonated the materials on fallow ground at the nearby Student Farm, having decided it would be unsafe to transport the materials any farther.

Subsequently, Raoul Adamchak, coordinator of the Student Farm’s Market Garden  notified California Certified Organic Farmers of the detonations. The Santa Cruz-based CCOF, accredited by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, certifies the Student Farm’s organic fields along with other organic farms throughout the state.

“Both the Student Farm and CCOF will await results from soil tests in the area surrounding the detonations,” Adamchak said.

“Those results will determine if any materials prohibited on organic farms were detected and, if so, how much of the Student Farm’s acreage must consequently be taken out of certification for three years, as prescribed by law,” he said.

The Student Farm would not grow crops on any land removed from organic certification, he said.

The 20-acre farm, founded in 1977, provides hands-on learning for students, and offers research opportunities for students and faculty from throughout the campus. It is home to a Market Garden, which provides food for the campus and surrounding community.

Adamchak and police officials agreed that they have no reason to think that any prohibited materials affected the crops now growing at the Student Farm, because the detonations were conducted in an uncultivated area about 50 yards from the crops.

“Because these materials presented so many unknown factors, we were dealing with a tremendous amount of risk,” Police Chief Matt Carmichael said.

Yolo County Bomb Squad Cmdr. Nick Concolino, who helped UC Davis police identify and remove the suspect materials from the apartment, said supervised detonation is the prescribed treatment for explosive materials because the heat from the detonation destroys the chemicals’ explosive capability.

Concolino said this type of detonation does not result in broad distribution of the destroyed materials.