barber orchard

U.S. HIGHWAY 23/74

The Barber Orchard site is located approximately 3 miles west of Waynesville, Haywood County, North Carolina, and consists of approximately 500 acres. This property was used as an apple orchard from 1903 to the mid 1980's when the orchard went bankrupt. In the late 1980's the land parceled off and sold for residential development. Apples were grown commercially therefore numerous pesticides/fungicides/rodenticides were used for the years including: lead arsenate, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), dichlorodiphenyldichloroethane (DDD), benzene hexachloride (lindane or gamma-BHC), endrin, and dieldrin. Surface elevations across the Barber Orchard range from approximately 2,920 feet above mean sea level (msl) along Richland Creek to 4,000 feet above msl at the property line for the Blue Ridge Parkway. In early 1999, the Haywood County Health Department sampled a concerned resident's potable well. Pesticides were detected which prompted a larger sampling effort by the State of North Carolina. The results were forwarded to EPA which initiated at removal action that began in October 1999 and was completed in August 2000. The removal action removed surface soils (0 to 1-foot) in the yards of properties where arsenic levels exceeded 40 milligrams per kilogram. The excavated areas were backfilled with clean fill and landscaped. Twenty-eight (28) yards were cleaned.