Reportable levels of arsenic have been found on an uncultivated part of the "40-acre Field," home of Land’s Sake farm. The contaminated site has been cordoned off, and the process of further testing and devising a cleanup plan is under way.

According to Wendy Diotalevi, director of Public Health, this discovery of arsenic contamination presents no immediate danger to the public. The arsenic lies below the surface and there is no danger from walking in the area.  However, repeated contact with arsenic-contaminated soil over several years is a potential health risk. 

After Weston’s environmental engineering consultant, Gale Associates, discovered concentrations of arsenic in some of the soil samples taken at the Case Estates property to be purchased from Harvard, the Board of Selectmen directed Gale Associates to conduct similar soil testing on nearby town land that was previously owned by Harvard and the Case family. The discovery of arsenic on Harvard’s Case Estates was not entirely unexpected since it was found in the areas where there had been orchards, and lead arsenate was a commonly-used pesticide for apple trees from the early 1900s through the 1960s.  

After studying the former uses of the town’s nearby land, Gale took a wide array of soil samples – 24 in all – including several on the "40-acre field" where aerial photographs from the 1930s indicated fruit trees had stood. The 40-acre field, which is north and east of the confluence of School, Wellesley and Newton streets, is the home of Land’s Sake farm. Arsenic, in concentrations exceeding a safe threshold, was found in three of the 24 samples tested by Gale. All three of these samples are from a small section of the 40-acre field north and east of the Land’s Sake farm stand. A few old fruit trees remain in this section of the property, but the fruit is not harvested and the land has never been tilled by Land’s Sake for vegetables or other crops. There were no elevated levels of arsenic in other soil samples on the 40-acre field, and this is consistent with regular soil tests of cultivated fields done by Land’s Sake, which have shown no elevated levels of lead.   

Upon receiving the soil test results, the town notified the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, and the area where the contaminated soil lies has been cordoned off. The Board of Selectmen has directed Gale Associates to undertake additional testing and to devise a cleanup plan that meets all state and federal standards. 

The cleanup plan is likely to entail removal and proper disposal of the contaminated soil. The cleanup will require careful controls to insure that the contaminants are fully contained during the excavation and removal process. At this time, the details and cost of the clean up plan are not known.