Worry over farming chemicals in land, looking to buy

[livinlovinlaughin]

Please forgive me if this is not the correct place for this question.

We are in search of a piece of land to move our family to. After my Dad saw pictures of what looked like a piece of an old farm he brought up a good point...the land could be swimming in chemicals from years of farming. I can not believe I had not thought about this before! So now I am wondering if there is any way to find out about any piece(s) of land we are interested in. I know they have history reports for cars. Is there anything similar for land? Or is there a (hopefully inexpensive) test that we can do to find out what might be living in the ground? We have some time to think about this and I want to do it right. I do not use chemicals in our home and I certainly doi not want to live somewhere that I have to worry about playing in the dirt or growing our own food. Any thoughts or experiences here??

[Hedgehog Mtn]

Could a coopertive extension run soil tests for you? My SIL is a wetlands scientist and she can do that sort of thing too.
I'd start at your coop extension and they should at minimum lead you in the right direction, also try NOFA if you are in the northeast - they may be able to tell you where to get tests done.

[mnnice]

I am not sure there is a great way to tell about the soil. You would want to inspect the place carefully for empty or partial containers of pesticide/herbicide.

I would worry more about exposure to current crops. Are the nearby neighbors raising intensively sprayed crops the convential way?

[annethcz]

I agree that ongoing exposure to chemicals would worry me more than anything lingering in the soil. Many farm chemicals have a pretty short half-life, which is why more than one application is needed.

Not to mention, you'd probably have the same issue if you were to buy new construction almost anywhere. Most suburban new construction happens on former farmland.

[hildare]

you can have the soil tested as well as water. they can look at soil quality and also look for contaminants. commercial labs will do this. you can probably just google "soil tests and _your area_"
you will take multiple samples but the testing lab will tell you how.
you might even want to consider writing it into a purchase contract, you can have the owners do it (but that depend on the circumstances of your purchase, kwim)

[livinlovinlaughin]

Originally Posted by hildare

you can have the soil tested as well as water. they can look at soil quality and also look for contaminants. commercial labs will do this. you can probably just google "soil tests and _your area_"
you will take multiple samples but the testing lab will tell you how.
you might even want to consider writing it into a purchase contract, you can have the owners do it (but that depend on the circumstances of your purchase, kwim)

What a great idea about the purchase contract.

Also, I am concerned about current chemical overspray and runoff. This is just something I hadn't given much thought to until now. Thank you all for your suggestions.

[onetrumpeter]

just wanted to thank you for posting this forethought/concern. I'm not sure I would have thought of that. (We're not in a position to be looking for land yet but of course I like to dream ) I do know that our state? county? cooperative will send soil samples to Virginia Tech for testing. It's something like $12 IIRC. They can test for pH and a variety of other things. But like others have said, maybe past chemical application is of less concern than current nearby application...

[Caneel]

Originally Posted by hildare

you can have the soil tested as well as water. they can look at soil quality and also look for contaminants. commercial labs will do this. you can probably just google "soil tests and _your area_"
you will take multiple samples but the testing lab will tell you how.
you might even want to consider writing it into a purchase contract, you can have the owners do it (but that depend on the circumstances of your purchase, kwim)

This is a good idea but be prepared for the owners to say no to the request.

If tests were conducted and the results showed contamination and the deal falls through, the owners would be required to disclose any results going forward.

I used to work in real estate appraisals and it was not uncommon for contracts to be written where any testing that was done by the potential buyer, for the potential buyers own purposes, would not be shared with the owner or used in pricing adjustments. (nearly always on commercial properties)

I remember one transaction where the seller had a new house built on former farm land. The property was completely surrounded by crop land.

The buyers wanted a long list of tests done on the house, soil and water. The seller said ok to the radon and well water tests but no to everything else. The seller didn't want to know about any chemicals that may have washed over onto her land due to run off. If she had been informed that XYZ chemicals were detected, she would have been required to include that information in the seller's disclosure. (The buyer purchased the house anyway.)

Some things I would look for on rural properties is any indications of underground fuel tanks, old burn pits, on-site dumps. I would worry about those far more than any ag chemicals that may have been used on the ground.

[AllyRae]

Originally Posted by annethcz

Not to mention, you'd probably have the same issue if you were to buy new construction almost anywhere. Most suburban new construction happens on former farmland.

Typically that dirt is removed and sold for profit though, and replaced with crappy fill dirt. At least that's how it is here... Our property was former farmland, but now we have the rockiest crappiest clay fill ever on land that should have been really fertile. We then had to buy soil in order to plant trees and a garden and the dirt place said they get their dirt from former farms that get sold to developers--the developers strip the land, sell the good dirt, and have cheap fill bought in.

[livinlovinlaughin]

Originally Posted by AllyRae

Typically that dirt is removed and sold for profit though, and replaced with crappy fill dirt. At least that's how it is here... Our property was former farmland, but now we have the rockiest crappiest clay fill ever on land that should have been really fertile. We then had to buy soil in order to plant trees and a garden and the dirt place said they get their dirt from former farms that get sold to developers--the developers strip the land, sell the good dirt, and have cheap fill bought in.

That is how it is where we are too. Nothing but clay!

[Caneel]

Originally Posted by AllyRae

Typically that dirt is removed and sold for profit though, and replaced with crappy fill dirt. At least that's how it is here... Our property was former farmland, but now we have the rockiest crappiest clay fill ever on land that should have been really fertile. We then had to buy soil in order to plant trees and a garden and the dirt place said they get their dirt from former farms that get sold to developers--the developers strip the land, sell the good dirt, and have cheap fill bought in.

The above is common in my area too.

[laohaire]

If it were me, I'd get a book on transitioning to organic farming, and I'd heal the soil. If the piece of property was great otherwise, I would actually be pleased to do my part returning fertility to this land.

I think the chemicals are nasty and I'm not being blase about it but you said it was an "old" farm so I'm assuming they didn''t just apply the last batch of chemicals last week, or even last year. If I understand correctly, 3 years of nonapplication is all it takes to be certified as transitional organic. (I could have some details wrong though, it might be more than just 3 years of no chemicals but 3 years of active healing such as certain cover crops etc).

Yes, some chemicals - relatively older ones at this point - are problematic because they are not broken down even in the food cycle. Hopefully your soil test will reveal whether those specific chemicals are in the soil.

Frankly even a residence could be soaking in chemicals, though. A house up the street seems to have herbicides sprayed every 2 weeks because obviously that's preferable to having a single dandelion ruin the yard. UGH.

[Artichokie]

this has been touched on, but what would scare me most is neighborhood crop dusting. You don't want to have to worry about your kids being outside when those planes fly over and dump their chemicals. It really stinks.

[livinlovinlaughin]

Originally Posted by Artichokie

this has been touched on, but what would scare me most is neighborhood crop dusting. You don't want to have to worry about your kids being outside when those planes fly over and dump their chemicals. It really stinks.

I never realized they did this. Could I be blind enough to not notice this where I live? How would I know if this is going on where we are?