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1 . An important concern associated with the environmental assessment of agricultural properties is the issue of buried pesticide containers. It was an occasional practice to dispose of containers by this method many years ago. To detect these types of underground artifacts is difficult even with the use of ground penetrating radar or other types of non-intrusive, subsurface analyses. The land surface did not exhibit visual indicators for buried containers such as surfacing of product residue, soil mounding or soil depressions. In addition, it would be very difficult to bury objects due to the severe hardpan. The static groundwater is found approximately 110 feet under the property as illustrated on the attached depth to groundwater map. This is considered a deep groundwater elevation. Deep groundwater cannot be easily impacted from pesticides or nitrogen in the form of nitrates. This is particularly true when there are intervening layers of clay soil down to the static water table depth. During our drilling procedures for percolation testing, it was found that the soil profile to a depth of 25 feet consists of a heavy clay soil with some gravel and sandy clay strata. The groundwater directional flow appears to be towards the northeast. Since the subject property has not been in agricultural production for several years, an evaluation of agrichemical residues as a nonpoint source of potential contamination was not performed. The science of pesticide residues in soil, air, surface water and groundwater is extremely complex and variable. Environmental models which attempt to predict pesticide behavior and transport in the environment are beyond the scope of this investigation. It has been clearly evident over the last four decades that the risk/benefit ratio regarding pesticides has been overwhelming benefit and comparatively low risk to the United States population and to the environment, as a whole. Environmental fate data is presented for the following pesticides which may have been applied either to the subject parcel many years ago or to surrounding acreage. These are a few of the more commonly used pesticides, although there are many others. This list illustrates environmental fate data, indicating the half-lives are comparatively fast. Data was obtained from the Illustrated Handbook of Physical-Chemical Properties and Environmental Fate for Organic Pesticide Chemicals: Dual. Common name: Metachlor. Half-lives in the environment: Groundwater: degradation time 500-1000 days (d). Soil: Half-lives in clay loam are 15-38 d. Phytolysis: Under optimum exposure conditions to natural sunlight, half life is approx. 8 d. Sevin. Common name: Carbaryl. Half-lives in the environment: Air: 12.6 hrs. Surface water: 3.2-200 hrs. Groundwater: 3.2-1440 hrs. Soil: 97-251 hrs in dry soil, 4458- 4688 hrs in saturated soil. Dimethoate. Half-lives in the environment: Air: 0.469-4.69 hrs. Surface water: 264-1344 hrs. Groundwater: 528-2688 hrs. Soil: 264-888 hrs. Orthene. Common name: Acephate. Half-lives in the environment: Soil: selected field half- life of 3.0 d. Hydrolysis: half-life of 60 hrs 4 vye• 6mliht C-trol Inspection