Los Angeles is no longer the largest city in the country without a completed soil survey, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Monday.
The department has concluded an eight-year project creating an inventory of the soil in the southeastern section of Los Angeles County, which includes the city.
“The process of mapping and cataloging the soils of Los Angeles was a large but exciting undertaking,” said Carlos Suarez, state conservationist for the department’s Natural Resource Conservation Service.
“Since soil surveys often focus largely on agricultural production, it was an interesting opportunity for our soil scientists to broaden their surveying focus to serve the many customers found in the complex setting that is southeast Los Angeles.”
About 680,000 acres were surveyed and 185 different soil types were identified, which included 20 new soil types for the area.
The project also created 158 individual soil management areas, and the information will now assist city leaders, ecological services and developers.
During the survey, an old building foundation from the 19th century on the grounds of present-day City Hall was discovered and later determined to be the subfloor of a former dentist’s office that advertised painless tooth extractions for a mere 50 cents.
The USDA said the L.A. survey is the latest to be completed in a large urban area along with recent surveys in New York City, Chicago and Detroit.
