Good news for some Vermont farmers: No major soil contamination has been found in the wake of this summer’s historic flooding.

The University of Vermont Extension tested nine farms across the state, focusing on vegetable and produce growers. Agricultural scientists say they wanted to understand the impact on farm soil by testing for contaminates like heavy metals, petroleum residue, parasites and viruses.

Any produce that was touched by floodwater is considered contaminated and was taken out of the food chain.

“So far, the results – and these are very early results we want to replicate and really understand better – the results have not indicated any significant levels of contamination,” says Chris Callahan, agricultural engineering faculty with the UVM Extension. “There are more in depth tests that we plan to do,” he notes.

The UVM Extension plans to keep testing soil every 30 days for 120 days to get full results. Callahan says the preliminary testing allowed for farmers of short-term crops to potentially re-plant before the fall.