Drilling has begun at the idle Avtex fiber plan in Front royal, but not in a search for oil or gold.

Worker with the Pennsylvania Drilling co. Inc. of McKees rocks, Pa., have been using a barge since late July to take samples from various spots in eight basins along the Shenandoah River.

Environmental Resources Management Inc., the contractor for FMC Corp., a former owner of the plant, hired the drilling company, which has floated a small barge mounted with a lightweight drilling rig to get to hard-to-reach places, such as the middle of the water-filled basins.

On Monday, four people were on the barge gathering sediment samples in the emergency lagoon. Two drillers, a sampling technician and a geologist worked while a safety officer, armed with a walkie-talkie, stood watch on the bank of the basin, ready to call for help in case of an accident.

Rick Balmer, the on-site project manager, said the samples are gathered in a two-piece, 5 foot long steel tube called a split spoon that is pushed into the sediment and pulled up with the material, which is then put into jars and sent to a laboratory for testing.

Robert T. Forbes, director of remediation for FMC, said zinc sludge, a byproduct of rayon manufacturing, is the primary contaminant in the sulfate basins, where sample gathering is complete.

Samples are taken down to the level of rock at the bottom of the basins, he said. The depth of drilling will vary, based on borings made through the berm surrounding the basin, he said.

The barge’s work will probably be completed by the end of next week, Forbes said.

The final report on Environmental Resources Management’s findings could go to the Environmental Protection Agency by next summer, he said.

The EPA will then determine if a second round of sampling to focus more specifically on certain problems is necessary.

Ultimately, the EPA will use information its own contractors have gathered and FMC has provided to determine the best way to clean up the contamination.

Water wells will be sampled this winter and technicians are taking borings at scrap viscose basins, Forbes said. Eight of the 11 basins in which there is scrap viscose, the material from which rayon is made, have been covered with earth through the years.

The cover is thick enough to support drilling equipment, Forbes said. On the three uncovered basins workers are using mountains of coal fly ash to make a road to support the equipment, he said.

While it may not appear from the outside that much is going on, FMC has set "an aggressive schedule" for its portion of the remedial investigation, he said.

Because FMC is a former owner of the site, it’s responsible for a portion of the cleanup under the federal Superfund law.

Its contractors will be responsible for sampling ground water, fly ash piles, landfills and areas of the plant west of the railroad tracks.

The EPA’s contractors are responsible for remaining areas.