Opinions needed

Well, if you was borned and raised here, you know the ways. "But oh well" sounds like the most reasonable course to me.

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"Nothing so needs reforming as other peoples habits." Mark Twain

weeping willows suck up water, and are nice to relax under, although no fruit to eat. Just an idea.
Id hire someone to dig up and haul out too. There was junk in the woods behind our home site when we built, and dh and I dug/pulled and winched it out ourselves

Yvonne's hubby yuall ever get down this way holler i throw you a homecomming

I didn't mean to pursue any legal action as has been stated and you sure don't want the EPA involved. I would see if the previous owner would help you and possibly split the cost to remove the debris and doze out the pond.He sounds like a good person since he came over and bush hogged the place for you. Good luck to you.

I don't think anybody "did you that way" or tried to take advantage! When you do build, just have the ground work crew cut you a drainage. Wet spot gone. I hate it too, but burying junk is an old habit that I have fought with my DH forever. You have a ditch? You throw stuff in it and eventually fill it in. Well, not here on our property, and I have seen a change in attitudes coming around, but slowly.
Don't try to fight it with fruit trees. Wet ground does not make trees grow deep roots. Shallow roots = tree blown over first good windstorm, just when they were getting a nice canopy and starting to bear fruit!
Drain the area, Dig in your footings and build there if you want. Look elsewhere for a nice spot for a pond. Chances are that one was silted in and very shallow anyway, or they wouldn't have filled it in.

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http://mmsmiracle.com/EnjoyBetterHealth

I live in WA state which is a pretty picky state about water. Up here, one problem you could run into is that a well can be declared unacceptable if it is within 1000 feet of a 'landfill'. That little pond where things were dumped could be considered a landfill. I know, I dealt with this when I was buying my land. Real pain in the rear but I did work thru it. In my case, I forced the seller and the county to GPS the well and the 'landfill' and it turned out to be 1066 feet so I was OK. In my case, the landfill was nothing like what you would consider a landfill. It was really only a gully where folks dumped things in years past. You know, like you see all the time in the country.

Since you own the land and I presume you like it, I'd ask the previous owner to help you clean it out but if they didn't bite, I'd keep my mouth shut about it to any officials.

The concise answer to your original question is, no, it's not a good place to plant any kind of fruit tree.

Madfarmer