The Environmental Protection Agency’s regional administrator informed U.S. Rep. Frank R. Wolf last week that a 100,000-gallon oil spill at the federal Avtex Superfund site should not further delay the timetable for restoring the property to commercial use.

The spill of contaminated fuel oil and waste liquids from an outside 240,000-gallon storage tank on the Avtex site in Front Royal "should have no effect on the ultimate site cleanup schedule, nor should it in any way affect efforts to use the office building area for commercial development", wrote EPA’s Region III Administrator Peter H. Kostmayer in a letter to Wolf received July 13.

"EPA assumes responsibility for insuring the protection of public health and the environment from the Avtex Fibers Front Royal plant," Kostmayer wrote in response to Wolf’s concern about the spill while EPA has total control of the site under federal law.

Kostmayer, a former Pennsylvania congressman defeated in the 1992 elections, was appointed by President Bill Clinton to head EPA’s Region III office in Philadelphia.

" I fully support my staff in these efforts, addressing and either eliminating or minimizing the most dangerous and serious potential threats from the site first, and insuring adequate safeguards and contingencies to protect the public health and the environment," Kostmayer wrote.

"These efforts in general, and specifically in regards to the effective containment and response to the oil leak noticed May 31, 1994, reveal to me that our overall efforts to protect the public health and the environment from the Avtex site have been and are expected to continue to be effective at this complex plant," the EPA regional administrator wrote.

Wolf gave The Warren Sentinel a copy of Kostmayer’s letter during a visit to Front Royal Friday.

The congressman initiated an inquiry into the oil leak in a letter to EPA administrator Carol M. Browner.

In his response, Kostmayer sought to blame Avtex rather than EPA for the recent problem.

He noted in his response that Avtex was forced to close in November 1989 because the state Water Control Board revoked the company’s permit to discharge storm and wastewater into the Shenandoah River "due to the presence of PCB."

The company closed the plant "virtually overnight without taking any steps to properly shut down its operations and leaving process lines, tanks, drums and vats full of extremely dangerous chemicals," Kostmayer said.

" EPA has successfully removed the most dangerous chemicals from the site and has taken numerous steps to insure that the potential for the most serious and dangerous releases are minimized," he said.

" In fact, the recent release of oil and the fact that the oil was contained in the diked area around the tank shows that our contingencies in the event of emergency situations do work," Kostmayer said.

Local officials have disputed the EPA official’s claim, saying the earthen berm that contained the oil spill was build by Avtex years before the plant closed. Fred Foster, a local businessman, and IDA director William Barnett, who serve on IDA’s industrial redevelopment committee, complained to Wolf that EPA maintains only a small cleanup crew headed by one fulltime official who neglected to detect the leak until a substantial outside spill had occurred.

Kostmayer acknowledged in his letter that 20,000 gallons of contaminated oil had leaked from a tank identified as tank No. 7, "located in the vicinity of the bone yare at the site," before the leak was detected by EPA’s onsite crew.

"There is speculation that the tank may have leaked for a number of days prior to our observance of it" the EPA administrator said.

"After evaluating tank records, it was determined that possibly up to 100,000 gallons of liquids may have leaked from the tank through two 3/8 inch holes that apparently connected grounding cables to the tank," he wrote.

No oil has since been detected in surrounding monitoring wells and the plant’s onsite sewer system, Kostmayer wrote. "A previously scheduled bioassay on Shenandoah River water adjacent to the site that was conducted within days after the reported leak revealed no adverse effects from the leak," the EPA administrator said.

Kostmayer said the No. 7 tank still contains approximately 8,000 gallons of No.6 fuel oil the consistency of road tar. It is stable and has adequate containment around it to prevent a release outside of the bermed area. We are evaluating the best method of handling this material."

Kostmayer said "the approximately 26,000 gallons of oil recovered from the bermed area around the leaking tank is now, with the permission of the Avtex bankruptcy trustee, in another onsite tank which appears to be structurally sound and that has adequate containment until a disposal facility is found and the material can be removed."