Contaminated pile looking towards Applewood Retirement CommunityUPDATE 9:15 AM: Perhaps the only thing more scary than the following story is the fact that it's probably perfectly legal. My reliable town offical source wants readers to know the
Department of
Environmental
Protection has different "handling requirements of this material from an agricultural by-product use vs. non agricultural."
Of course the way a human body reacts to the presence of the dangerous substances doesn't change depending on whether that exposure was caused by agricultural uses vs. an industrial smelting plant.
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In South Amherst lead and arsenic go together like smoke and fire.
Commercial apple orchards operated by Atkins farms (founded 1887) and original competitor Wentworth farms needed an effective insecticide, easy to apply in bulk, to protect their cash crop. They found it in lead arsenate and used many tons of it over a couple generations until the popular pesticide was banned by the EPA in 1988.
Today these old apple orchards still contain the hazardous chemical cocktail bonded to the soil. Recently controversy arose when the town cut a deal with Baltazar Contractors, who won the $6,060,220 bid to construct two Atkins corner roundabouts, to dispose of 6,000 tons of lead arsenic contaminated soil in the old landfill for a tidy six-figure sum in dump fees, which the town would then cover over with three feet of clean fill to satisfy a DEP order to regrade the sagging landfill cap.
Neighbors--already mobilized to fight a 4.75 megawatt solar array farm at the site (which requires a level terrain)--complained bitterly about the contaminated soil coming to their backyards, and even though the DEP deemed it safe (with many conditions attached), the town scuttled plans to accept it in the landfill, thus leaving the dirt in uncovered piles adjacent to one of the busiest businesses in Amherst.
Sovereign Builders is concurrently constructing a spacious warehouse for Atkins immediately behind the popular store, which is of course located in an old orchard. I took a soil sample (one of three) from the large
uncovered pile of dirt that this private sector project has generated off West Bay Road currently towering over the landscape only a couple yards from Atkins Market and Applewood Retirement Community (built on 10 acres of former apple orchard.)
The UMass Soil and Plant Tissue Testing Lab found 427 ppm lead in the pile; unfortunately they do not not screen for arsenic. Lead arsenate contains one atom of aresenic for every atom of lead, and as an atom of lead is 2.8 times as heavy as an atom of arsenic, if only lead arsenate is present, a soil containing 427 ppm of lead will contain 153 ppm of arsenic. Arsenic levels above 20 ppm are a cause for concern.
According to the town the known contaminated soil from the road roundabout reconstruction project tested at 46 milligrams/kilogram for arsenic, and if my sample
is from the same batch, 273 ppm for lead.
Twenty years ago when Applewood was constructed on a former Atkins orchard the excavated soil was taken to an expensive special handling facility, as was soil from the Eric Carle Museum construction project ten years ago.
Even if no arsenic is present (and that seems
unlikely) the lead content alone requires special attention and handling. According to the UMass soil lab "If estimated total lead levels are above 300 ppm, young children and pregnant woman should avoid soil contact."
And with hot, dry,
windy summer weather fast approaching, one large pile of bare dirt could send contaminated dust blowing in the wind.
Contaminated pile looking toward Atkins Country Market
UMass Soil Lab analysis ( see "Atkins Hill" sample)
Roundabout construction in front of Atkins Market
lead tested at 273 ppm (low)
UPDATED Friday the 13th: the hill is getting B-I-G-G-E-R DEP guidance on landfill regrading