Soils testing

[Sandy J]

What would I be looking for in a soils test? Several years ago I bought a house on what was determined to be an old oil field dumpsite. This revelation led to 10 yrs of litigation. We had everything from benzene to toluene, etc. etc.

[HADD_OK]

We've had soils tests done on our property to determine if it was the cause of our foundation failure; it wasn't, it was determined to be defective construction. But I'm not sure who tests soils for contaminants. You might be able to find a soils engineer, or contact the Environmental Protection Agency for a referral. There is an effort by the home building industry to get congress to pass a law that makes it legal, without disclosure or any liability, to build homes on "brownfields." This is land that was contaminated and is supposed to be cleaned up but frankly I don't know if there's anyone I'd trust to clean it up good enough for homes to be built on it. We're in a state where there's an oil or gas well just about everywhere, sometimes quite a few of them. Sounds like you are, too.