April 09, 1995

Before the deteriorating buildings at the closed Avtex Fibers plant collapse by themselves, the Environmental Protection Agency may tear down about half of them, an agency official said Wednesday.

"We've been noticing that they've been getting worse," Remedial Project Manager Andy C. Palestini said of buildings at the former rayon plant, which is now an EPA Superfund cleanup site. Acids and bases used in making viscose have dried into salts that are eating away at concrete and steel structural supports, he said.

Rather than just letting the building fall apart and possibly cause more damage, the EPA wants to control the dismantling, Palestini said. A recent study by a Pennsylvania engineering group showed which buildings to tear down and how to do it, he said.

The study by the Roy F. Weston firm calls for 30 of the 65 acres of building space to be torn down, Palestini said. The project would cost $23 million, about the same amount as all of the agency's cleanup efforts at Avtex so far, and take 2 years to complete, he said.

Palestini didn't know when demolition will begin because the EPA doesn't know where it will get the funding for it.

Structures to be destroyed primarily are on the south side of the building complex's north corridor, Palestini said. The Warren County Redevelopment Corporation has said it wants to ready buildings on the north side of the corridor for use by industries. Palestini and corporation president Frederick W. Fester said they don't know how the demolition will affect the redevelopment effort.

The buildings recommended to be torn down were processing areas where a variety of chemicals were used, Palestini said. Buildings the corporation wants to reuse were office and shipping areas without the same problems of decay, he said.

Before demolition was an issue, Foster had said those buildings could be prepared for industrial use in about a year.

Getting rid of the buildings is complicated by the presence of old tanks full of unidentified materials that could include chemicals and viscose, Palestini said. If the buildings were imploded, chunks of the buildings could fall on the tanks and cause dangerous leaks, he said, But it's not even known whether the tanks are full, he said.

"We've got to take it apart piece by piece," Palestini said. Tanks that are 20 and 30 feet high will require roof removal in places, he said.

EPA employees check the Avtex site regularly. They noticed last summer or fall that parts of the structures looked like they may start falling, Palestini said. The engineering study began in January and was given to the EPA this month, he said.