Phase 1 ESA for Agricultural Land

Farmland has a reputation as clean ground, and a Phase 1 Environmental Site Assessment on a working farm can still turn up more than a buyer expects. Pesticides were mixed and loaded in the same corner of the yard for fifty years. Fuel for the tractors sat in a tank next to the shop. Cattle were run through an arsenic dip vat. Trash was burned and buried in a ravine behind the barn. Each of these leaves a mark that shows up in soil samples, and each becomes the buyer's issue when the land changes hands, whether the plan is to keep farming or to build a subdivision.

This guide explains where the consultant looks on agricultural land, how the findings differ from those on a commercial building, and what a buyer or a lender should ask for before closing.

Why the Deal Type Changes the Scope

A farm sold to another farmer with a Farm Credit loan gets a Phase 1 scoped to the farmstead and the known chemical handling areas, and the lender's concern is the collateral value. The same farm sold to a homebuilder gets a Phase 1 that treats every acre as a future backyard, because residential screening levels for arsenic and pesticides are low and a subdivision cannot be built on soil that exceeds them without a cleanup or a cap. The consultant needs to know the buyer's intended use before scoping the work, and a buyer who plans to change the use should say so.

The Farmstead

The buildings and the yard around them hold nearly all of the concern on a crop farm. The consultant walks the equipment shop for the fuel tanks, the used oil drum, the parts washer, and the floor drain. Above-ground fuel tanks on a farm are exempt from most state registration rules, so the tank history comes from the owner's memory and from aerial photographs that show a tank pad. Buried tanks were common on farms before the 1980s and were rarely closed under permit.

The pesticide mixing and loading area is the single most contaminated spot on most farms. Concentrate was poured, sprayer tanks were rinsed, and the rinse water went on the ground in the same place for decades. The consultant looks for a concrete pad, a well within a hundred feet, a dead zone in the vegetation, and empty containers. The chemical storage shed gets the same treatment, along with any seed treatment area where mercury-based fungicides were used before 1970.

Legacy Practices That Leave Residue

Lead arsenate was the standard orchard insecticide in the United States from the 1890s until DDT replaced it after World War II. Former orchard land across Washington, Oregon, New York, Virginia, and the Great Lakes states carries lead and arsenic in the top foot of soil at levels above residential screening values. Washington's Department of Ecology maps former orchard areas for this reason. Cotton and tobacco land in the South got arsenical pesticides as well. DDT, chlordane, dieldrin, and toxaphene persist in soil for decades after application and show up on row crop land across the country.

Cattle dip vats were long concrete troughs filled with an arsenic solution used to control ticks, and they operated by the tens of thousands across the South and Southwest into the 1960s. A vat that was buried in place leaves an arsenic hot spot that county records sometimes locate and sometimes do not. Farm dumps in a draw or a wooded corner hold pesticide containers, batteries, and treated lumber ash. Unplugged wells give surface water a direct path to the aquifer.

Livestock and Feed Operations

A confined animal feeding operation adds manure lagoons, a mortality composting area, and in many cases a permit from the state that comes with inspection records. The consultant reviews the permit file for violations and looks at the lagoon liners and the land application fields. Dairies have a milk house with cleaning chemicals and a waste line. Poultry houses were treated with roxarsone, an arsenic-based feed additive, into the 2010s, and the litter was spread on fields. None of this rises to a REC on its own in a typical report, and all of it gets documented.

What the Records Add

Rural properties sit far from the database listings that fill a city Phase 1, and the records review on a farm leans on aerial photographs, topographic maps, and the county assessor's history. The state agriculture department keeps records of pesticide dealers and applicators, and a farm that ran its own aerial application business will have a file. Some states, Minnesota among them, run a separate cleanup program for agricultural chemical sites through the agriculture department rather than the environmental agency, and the consultant needs to know to check it. Oil and gas well records matter on farmland in Texas, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and the Plains states, since an unplugged well in a pasture is a REC.

Findings and the Phase 2

A crop farm with a documented mixing area, a buried fuel tank, and a farm dump gets three RECs. Former orchard land gets a REC for the prior use even with no visible evidence. A pasture with no farmstead and no history of anything but grazing gets a clean report. A Phase 2 on farmland is shallow and wide. Hand auger samples from the top foot at the mixing area, the tank, the dump, and a grid across former orchard ground get analyzed for arsenic, lead, and organochlorine pesticides, with petroleum hydrocarbons at the tank. Groundwater sampling is added where a well sits near a source area. A subdivision developer with orchard land above residential screening levels ends up with a soil management plan, a cap of clean fill under lawns, or excavation and disposal, and the state voluntary cleanup program handles the closure in many cases.

Lenders and Cost

Farm Credit lenders and rural banks ask for a Phase 1 on larger acquisitions and on any parcel with a farmstead, and the SBA requires one on loans secured by farmland that has a chemical handling history. The SBA environmental requirements guide explains how the agency treats agricultural collateral. Developers using construction loans face the strictest review, because the lender is underwriting homes on the ground.

A Phase 1 on a farm prices by acreage and by the number of structures. A quarter section with a single farmstead lands near the middle of the range on the cost guide. A large multi-parcel ranch or a farm with several building sites runs higher because the site walk takes a full day or more. The Phase 2 on former orchard land is priced by the number of grid samples, and a development parcel can need dozens.

What a Buyer Should Do

Walk the property with the seller and ask where chemicals were mixed, where fuel was stored, where trash went, and whether any wells or tanks were abandoned. Ask for spray records, which many farms keep for crop insurance and which tell the consultant what was applied and when. Ask for the aerial application records if the farm ran its own plane. A buyer planning to develop should order the Phase 1 early enough to fit a Phase 2 and a soil management plan into the entitlement schedule, since a residential screening exceedance found late can push a project by a season. The Phase 1 vs Phase 2 guide explains how the two reports sequence.

Get Farmland ESA Quotes

ESAquotes connects farmland buyers, developers, and lenders with environmental professionals who work rural property. Submit the parcel location and receive Phase 1 and Phase 2 quotes from firms that cover your county.