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Barber Orchard

National Information
Additional Resources
Site Summary Profile
EPA ID: NCSFNO406989
Location: Waynesville, Haywood County, NC
Lat/Long: 35.445830, -083.063880
Congressional District: 11
NPL Status: Proposed: 01/11/01; Final: 09/13/01
Affected Media: Ground water, Soil
Cleanup Status: Physical cleanup activities have started
Site Reuse/Redevelopment: Portions of site currently being used for agricultural production, commercial, cultural, and light industrial purposes
Site Manager: John Bornholm (bornholm.jon@epa.gov)


Site Background

The Barber Orchard site is located in Haywood County, North Carolina, three miles west of Waynesville. The former orchard consisted of approximately 438 acres and was used to grow apples from 1908 to 1988 at which time the bank holding the loan foreclosed on the owners of the orchard. In 1988, the bank began selling tracks of land in various sizes. It is anticipated that the majority of the currently undeveloped property will be developed as residential property. In addition to residential use, some of the property is currently being used for agricultural production, commercial, cultural (i.e., churches), and light industrial purposes.

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 a removal action that began in October 1999 and was completed in August 2000.

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Threats and Contaminants

During its operation as an apple orchard, numerous pesticides/fungicides/rodenticides were used including: lead arsenate, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), dichlorodiphenyldichloroethane (DDD), benzene hexachloride (lindane or gamma-BHC), endrin, and dieldrin. The site was listed on the National Priorities List because pesticide-related contamination is present in residential soils and in private drinking wells.

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Site Cleanup Plan

EPA issued a Record of Decision (ROD), describing the cleanup approach for the site, in 2004. Major components of the cleanup approach included:

The ROD for dealing with the ground water and ecological portions of the site will be issued after sufficient ground water data has been collected to support a decision. The arsenic bioavailability study using primates (monkeys) and contaminated soil from the site conducted by the University of Florida has been completed. This study allowed EPA to determine how much of the arsenic in the soil at the site was absorbed. No harm came to the primates from this study. The information generated from this study will allow EPA to adjust the site-specific arsenic soil cleanup goal from 40 millgrams per kilogram (mg/kg) to 80 mg/kg. The Explanation of Significant Difference to instate this modification is currently under review by the Agency. A similar study using swine was conducted by the University of Missouri.

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Cleanup Progress

Barber Orchard occupies over 400 acres where a portion of the orchard has been developed into residential properties. The majority of the remaining acreage is also planned to be developed into residential property. The RI/FS Work Plan and supporting documents were approved by the Agency in March 2001. RI field was conducted during the summer-fall of 2001 and January 2002. During 2003 and the beginning of 2004, EPA collected a 5-point composite sample from nearly every acre in the orchard. This additional data allowed the Agency to better estimate the quantity of contaminated soil in the orchard as well as allow the property owners to know if their particular property is clean or contaminated. The Record of Decision (ROD) for dealing with the contaminated soils was issued in September 2004. The ROD calls for the removal of all contaminated soil and the underground distribution pipeline. All non-hazardous material will be disposed of in a Subtitle D landfill and all hazardous material will be disposed of in a Subtitle C landfill. The Remedial Design for the soil cleanup was completed in October 2005. The ROD for dealing with the groundwater and ecological portions of the site will be issued after sufficient groundwater data has been collected to support a decision.

Soil cleanup activities at the Site began in the middle of October 2010 and are scheduled to be completed by the end of September 2011.  As of June 2011, over 50 percent of the work has been completed.  The excavated soil will be used as the base of a soil cover for a local industrial landfill currently being closed under Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

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Enforcement Activities

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Community Involvement

EPA has conducted a range of community involvement activities at the Barber Orchard site to solicit community input and to ensure that the public remains informed about site activities throughout the site cleanup process. Outreach activities have included public notices and information meetings on cleanup progress and activities.

In addition, as part of the emergency response, EPA set up a Community Relations Center in the Orchard that was staffed five days a week. EPA's Community Relations Specialists coordinated meetings between residents, the news media, politicians, and EPA.

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Future Work

The ROD for dealing with the ground water and ecological portions of the site will be issued after sufficient ground water data has been collected to support a decision.

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Site Administrative Documents

Site Repository

For more information or to view any site-related documents, please visit the site information repository at the following location. As new documents are generated, they will be placed in the information repository for public information.

Haywood County Public Library
402 Haywood Street
Waynesville, NC 28786

For documents not available on the website, please contact the Region 4 Freedom of Information Office.

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