A Toxic House in the Country

Families that bought land in the Barber Orchard subdivision near Waynesville, North Carolina, thought they were acquiring a piece of nirvana. Mountains rise all around; the air seems fresh and the water clean. But when one resident had his well water tested on the advice of a former orchard worker, the dream turned into a nightmare. The water was found to contain DDT, DDE, and benzene hydrochlorides, and the soil was contaminated with lead and arsenic-remnants of half a century of pesticide spraying on the former apple orchard. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has since sent in an emergency response team to remove the topsoil, and residents have been advised to outfit their water systems with carbon filters. The dangers to farm workers and others living in agricultural communities from the misuse of pesticides have been well documented, but suburban home-Suburban blight? Homeowners seeking the country life may get more than they bargained for when they build homes on former agricultural property. and interference with reproduction. Fetuses, infants, and children are particularly vulnerable to pesticides because their bodies cannot efficiently detoxify and eliminate chemicals and because they have more of their lifetime left in which to develop health complications after exposure. Each year, an average of 1.3 million acres of rural land-including 370,000 acres of former cropland-is converted to development. Conversion is especially heavy near metropolitan areas where lack of profitability, increasing taxes, and escalating land prices are forcing many farmers to sell out. But for all the land that is being developed, both government and industry officials say there is no cause for alarm. "We have done extensive groundwater monitoring and we don't find a lot of drinking water wells that have pesticides," says Tom Hoogheem, E n v i r o n m e n t a 1 Stewardship Lead with Monsanto Corporation. "Of the ones that do have a problem, most of the wells are hand-dug [and thus lack a casing], have a casing that's cracked, or are improperly constructed, shallow wells." But critics say problems don't appear widespread only because no one is looking for them. owners may be surprised to learn that they, too, may be at potential risk from activities that took place on their property decades ago. Soil and water contamination of former agricultural areas has been recorded in virtually every region of the United States. Long Island made headlines in the 1970s …