The FMC Corp. has no veto power over the reuse of the idle Avtex Fibers rayon plant that it once owned, an attorney for the company said

"We don't have a veto," Robert J. Fields said. "Even if I had it, I wouldn't exercise it."

Fields said he wants to make sure a recent letter from the Environmental Protection Agency to 10th District Rep. Frank R. Wolf on the reuse of the site isn't misinterpreted.

The letter says the EPA, which controls the site cleanup has to get the consent of Avtex bankruptcy trustee Anthony H. Murray Jr. and FMC for any settlements that affect conveyances of the plant’s real estate.

Fields said ,that's a reference to an agreement that the agency is working on with the trustee, FMC and others to settle issues in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Reading, Pa.

The statement has nothing to do with the reuse of the property, which the trustee and the court control, he said.

Fields also said FMC has signed the work plan for the site and will begin its part of the cleanup in June. FMC, which owned the site from 1963 to 1970, has agreed to investigate soil and ground water contamination near a series of unlined basins and ponds along the Shenandoah River, where waste products were dumped for years, and near the plant’s buildings.

Fields said he understands that a company that expressed, an interest in using part of the plant last year is still interested. He said last year that a company was seeking a warehouse in the area. The company is interested because of the area's central location, he said.

Avtex was closed in late 1989 because of extensive pollution problems.