June 08, 1993

The Environmental Protection Agency has scheduled a meeting for June 16 in Front Royal on its upcoming investigation of the extent of the contamination at the Avtex Fibers Superfund site.

A plan describing the activities the agency and the FMC Corp., a former owner of the idle rayon plant, are scheduled to perform will discussed at the meeting at 7 p .m. in the Warren County Courthouse. In addition to defining, the extent of contamination at site of more than 400 acres, the remedial investigation and feasibility study will assess current and future risks to human health and the environment and will develop and evaluate potential cleanup alternatives.

At the meeting, EPA officials will describe the study process, discuss upcoming activities and answer questions. The study activities of the EPA and FMC are scheduled to begin next week.

During the investigation, which is expected to conclude with a final report in September 1994, contractors hired by FMC will install monitoring wells and conduct soil borings. In addition, EPA and FMC contractors will sample surface soils, surface water, sediment, aquatic life, solid waste, liquid waste, air and drinking water, according to an EPA news release.

Sources of contamination at the site include buildings, sewers, soils and unlined waste basins along the Shenandoah River, the river itself and ground water. If the contamination is greater than now estimated, the contractors may conduct a second part of the study.

Following the investigation of the contamination, contractors will develop several alternatives for addressing the contamination and cleaning it up.

So far the EPA's cleanup activities include cleaning and dismantling the areas of the plant where carbon disulfide, a volatile chemical used in the manufacture of rayon, was stored.

The structurally unsound acid reclaim building also was dismantled and 8,000 pounds of soil contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls has been removed.

The agency also will begin sampling the contents of thousands of drums of unknown chemicals this summer and removing them for disposal.

The EPA keeps the administrative record file for public viewing at Samuels Public Library on Villa Avenue and at the EPA’s mid-Atlantic headquarters at 841 Chestnut St. in Philadelphia.