Tucked away on a quiet dirt road in Temple, the site of a long-dormant orchard caught the attention of its neighbors this spring. Heavy machinery rolled onto the property and began changing the landscape, feeding some felled trees into a wood chipper and stacking others into piles of logs.
Watching the earth get churned up in the logging process, a group of concerned abutters and neighbors of the old John Barry property on North Road has spent recent months monitoring activity there.
The area operated as an orchard through the early 1900s when lead-arsenate was widely used as a pesticide. It’s been decades, and the adverse health effects of those toxins are now well-known — but those heavy metals tend to stick around in the soil until it’s disturbed, studies show. Residents worry that the activity on the land will cause those chemicals to seep into the nearby Mill Brook, which stretches east toward Wilton.
Jamie Jones, who lives near the old orchard, began investigating months ago and has since filed complaints with the state and gotten local lawmakers, like state Sen. Denise Ricciardi, involved. He grew concerned after learning about lead-arsenate and its long hold on soil.
“That was like the first exclamation point, like OK, that’s a real issue if they’re looking to develop the lands,” Jones said.
Water runoff from the site contained exceedingly high levels of both arsenic and lead, according to a test conducted by the state’s Department of Environmental Services, which regulates water quality. Thirteen samples were collected from different areas at the property in July. The lab report was completed in August.
Two samples contained more than 0.08 milligrams per liter of arsenic — more than 16 times the allotted limit of 0.005 milligrams. Those same samples also had more than 0.21 milligrams per liter of lead; the limit for lead is 0.015 milligrams.
The state also documented turbidity, which is cloudiness in water that can be an indicator of its quality.
“I felt fairly emotional about it,” Jones said, and the levels were higher than he expected. “It was a bit shocking, and really concerned for not just my town, but anybody downstream is going to feel the effects of this.”
The other 11 samples contained miniscule amounts that fell under the threshold; some didn’t detect any lead at all.
The issue is a common one for old orchards across the country. The federal government encouraged the use of lead-arsenate as a pesticide throughout the early 1900s until more effective ones gained popularity in the 1940s. More was later discovered about the harmful effects of those heavy metals, and the government banned lead-arsenate as a pesticide in 1980s.
The property was recently inherited by Brian Stezenski-Williams and Leslie Williams. The town hasn’t received a formal application for development there, although a potential 15-lot subdivision was discussed at an informal conference with the Temple Planning Board earlier this year.
The owners planned to cut 156 of the property’s 211 acres starting in May, according to a form submitted to the state for tax assessment purposes.
Stezenski-Williams, who lives in Wisconsin, declined to comment except to say that the property has been in his family for generations and that the work happening on the property is a private matter.
The state Department of Environmental Services did not make anyone available to answer the Ledger-Transcript’s questions for this story.
What about the water?
Jones said he’s worried the runoff will contaminate the Mill Brook and, by extension, water supply in downstream areas like Wilton.
Kermit Williams, a Wilton water commissioner and Select Board member, said if there is persistent contamination, it’s unlikely to directly impact the town’s water system. The Mill Brook feeds into two reservoirs that were once used as a source of drinking water, though both have long been out of commission, he said.
The town voted back in the 1980s to drill wells for its drinking water, Williams said. Wells generally draw from aquifers and groundwater, he added, so any source of surface water, like a brook, would undergo some filtering through the aquifer before being drawn through the well.
“I don’t know what impact it could have on individual people’s wells,” Williams said. “If I had a private well in that area, I would probably want to have it tested, but that of course is the individual homeowner’s option and not something that either the water system or the town would really be able to be involved in.”
In response to Jones’s complaints alleging that erosion controls weren’t in place, the Department of Environmental Services requested in May that Stezenski-Williams voluntarily pause the work there while setting that up.
New silt fencing was installed on the property after that but doesn’t appear to be containing the runoff, state Sen. Ricciardi said in an email to state officials who oversee the environment.
The Department of Environmental Services plans to test the water again, Ricciardi said, but must follow certain protocols.
“They need to wait for a very good rainfall to come back and test the water,” Ricciardi said, “then if there’s any problems they will bracket the site and do things to mitigate it.”
Is it allowed?
Jones said his group has had a tough time getting answers: from local officials and from the state.
Trying to talk to the Temple Select Board about it is a “black hole,” he said.
The town will not comment publicly before getting legal advice, according to Select Board assistant Carole Singleais. As of Tuesday, she said, the Select Board had met with its lawyers and is awaiting advice.
Residents decided not to wait. Earlier this month, they got their legislators involved.
Ricciardi, a Bedford Republican whose district includes Temple and other towns in the eastern Monadnock area, met with dozens of residents last week to hear their concerns.
As a result, she said she looked into obtaining a cease-and-desist to force any further disturbance on the property until further water and soil testing could be completed. Such an order would come from the Division of Forestry and Lands, but Ricciardi said a leader there told her that because the proper permits were obtained, it would likely be challenged in court.
Jones questions whether the land is being cleared in anticipation of the subdivision discussed with the Planning Board earlier this year, though no plans have been formally submitted to local land use boards.
Jason Reimers, a local land use and environmental lawyer, did not comment on the specifics of the Barry Farm property but said that as long as landowners submit the proper paperwork and absent any local restrictions on frontage and proximity to wetlands, they can generally harvest timber on their property as they choose.
“If I have a piece of land, I’m generally allowed to cut the trees down,” Reimers said.
Ricciardi said she received similar advice from the Division of Forestry and Lands.
“The way the rules are now, the permits that were sought for the trees and the logging and all that, the orchard, they followed the rules,” Ricciardi said.
She added that she is looking into crafting legislation that might amend the rules in the future.
