Former orchard or farm

Historical aerial photographs show the subject property as an orchard or cropland decades ago, with no industrial history since. Whether past chemical use makes a recognized environmental condition (REC) depends on four things: whether anything beyond field application took place, how the law's treatment of ordinary application is weighed, what was applied and for how long, and whether what remains is more than a de minimis condition.

What the answer turns on

Application, or handling. The standard's appendixes are nonmandatory. The one on legal background describes a federal bar on recovering response costs that result from applying a registered pesticide according to its label. By the appendix, courts have construed it narrowly and held it not to cover pesticide disposal, storage, spills or transport, one case naming loading spills and drained rinse water, nor misapplication that contaminates adjoining property, and it leaves liability under other federal and state law unchanged (E1527-21, X1.1.4.3). Fertilizer is different: its normal application is excluded from the definition of release the standard adopts, though spillage or improper storage may not be (E1527-21, 3.2.75, X1.1.1.2). Evidence that chemicals were stored, loaded, spilled or dumped moves toward a likely release. Evidence of fields only leaves the questions below.
The weight is the environmental professional's. The standard says only that the exclusions may affect opinions and conclusions (E1527-21, 3.2.75). The appendix places the pesticide provision under limits on cost recovery, not among the exclusions from the definition of release (E1527-21, X1.1.4.3, X1.1.1.2). For releases that definition excludes, such as normal fertilizer application, it notes that the federal rule does not say whether they must be identified (E1527-21, X1.1.1.3). Nothing in the standard classifies residue from ordinary application.
What was applied, how long, and when. The professional considers what releases the historical uses could have led to (E1527-21, 8.3.1). For a likely release another appendix points to operations involving hazardous substances, their duration and their period (E1527-21, X4.1). Only hazardous substances and petroleum products count (E1527-21, 3.2.73, 13.1.5.15). Its note on those factors names petroleum storage, dry cleaning and manufacturing, not agriculture (E1527-21, X4.1).
De minimis. A condition tied to a release that generally poses no threat to health or the environment, and generally would not draw enforcement if the agency learned of it, is a de minimis condition (E1527-21, 3.2.20). In that appendix's illustration, an oil stain on a parking lot, that call rests on the professional's experience with regulators in the jurisdiction (E1527-21, X4.3).

The records that bear on it

Aerial photographs and maps. Agricultural use counts as a developed use, so the history reaches back to it or to 1940, whichever is earlier (E1527-21, 8.3.8). Look past the rows for the features the site visit looks for: structures, tanks, pits or ponds, mounds or depressions, roads with no apparent outlet (E1527-21, 9.2.2, 9.4).
Interviews. Past owners, operators and occupants likely to have material information are interviewed where identified (E1527-21, 10.5.4). Ask what was grown and applied, where chemicals and fuel were kept, and where waste went.
Site visit. The same features, with drums and containers, stained soil, stressed vegetation and wells including irrigation wells, are looked for and reported, present or absent (E1527-21, 9.4). For large undeveloped or rural tracts the user may consider the forestland and rural property practice (E1527-21, 9.2.1, Note 4; 40 CFR 312.11(b)).
Documents and state records. Ask for prior assessments, investigation reports and geotechnical studies (E1527-21, 10.8.1). Florida lists cattle dipping vats, though its agency says it lacks locations for most.

What the federal rule says

The rule never mentions pesticides or fertilizer. It names agriculture once: historical records must reach back, as far as the professional judges necessary, to when the property held structures, or

from the time the property was first used for residential, agricultural, commercial, industrial, or governmental purposes.

40 CFR 312.24(b)

On small quantities, the rule's standards are not intended to require the written report to identify quantities or amounts of hazardous substances

that because of said quantities and amounts, generally would not pose a threat to human health or the environment.

40 CFR 312.20(h)

How it is written up

The report describes the agricultural use with the other identified uses (E1527-21, 8.3.8).

Where the professional concludes a release and presence are likely, from handling beyond application or from what was applied and for how long, the feature or use is a finding and the opinion gives those grounds. Unless judged a de minimis condition or a historical REC, the REC is listed in the Conclusions, and the professional should give an opinion on additional investigation (E1527-21, 3.2.20, 3.2.39, 12.5, 12.6, 12.7, 12.8).

Where the evidence shows field application only and the professional concludes otherwise, an opinion on a finding still gives its reasons: the fertilizer exclusion, the professional's own weighing of the pesticide cost recovery bar (the body of the standard does not mention it), a de minimis condition, or presence not being likely (E1527-21, 3.2.75, 12.6). A risk to the user's planned use outside the REC definition can be discussed as a business environmental risk if the user asked for that service (E1527-21, 3.2.11, X5.8).

Aerial coverage of the farming years, or an interview with a past owner or operator, may be what cannot be had. Required information that good faith efforts could not obtain is a data gap, significant if it affects the ability to identify a REC: named in the Findings with the sources consulted, discussed in the Opinions and listed in the Conclusions (E1527-21, 3.2.19, 3.2.78, 12.5.1, 12.6.2, 12.7).

This page is general reference for environmental professionals. It does not classify any property. ASTM E1527-21 is the standard and is not reproduced here; the judgment of the environmental professional on the facts governs.