Historic farmlands in New Hampshire and elsewhere are increasingly being developed. While the arsenic and lead in the soils of old orchards is essentially immobile as long as the land is not disturbed, our work suggests that the development of these lands can inadvertently mobilize these metals toward bodies of water. Communities in these areas may want to ensure additional precautions are taken to control erosion when old orchard lands are disturbed in order to reduce the potential for contamination of nearby surface waters.

Carl Renshaw