Warren County supervisors like the idea of storing the remains of razed Avtex buildings in specially lined storage pits, but only if they can be sure the county can't be held liable for any cleanup costs at the defunct rayon manufacturing plant.

Fred Foster, chairman of the Warren County Redevelopment Corp., told the board Tuesday night that more than 30 acres of buildings at the Avtex Superfund site are so contaminated and deteriorated that they can never be used again.

Engineers working with the Environmental Protection Agency and FMC Corp., a former owner of the site, have said the buildings in the 160-acre area west of the railroad tracks are so full of chemicals -- including sulfuric acid and hydrogen sulfide -- that reclamation could not even be considered, Foster said.

Foster himself visited the site last week, donning protective clothing and steel-toed boots, and said he was shocked at the condition of the buildings in that area.

"They're deteriorated really bad," Foster said, noting that acid had completely eaten through the steel beams in some areas of the buildings.

While redevelopment is possible -- and even close to occurring -- on some portions of the site, Foster said the 160 acres west of the tracks will never again be fit for human habitation.

"We thought at one time we might get a golf course or a park out of it," he said. "But now they're telling us we'll be lucky to get a wildlife refuge out of it."

However, he said, there are 14 acres of level ground there, out of the floodplain and with a clay base, that could help solve one of the largest problems plaguing the site remediation.

That 14 acres, Foster told the board, would be the perfect site for a "retracell," a clay- and plastic-lined pit that could hold debris from dismantled Avtex buildings.

The pit would be cover the entire 14-acre area, he said, be about eight feet deep, and rise about eight feet above ground level. A liner of several alternating layers of clay and plastic would keep any chemicals from leaching into the surrounding ground. The same materials would cap the pit, and grass would be planted over the mound.

Monitoring wells would be placed near the pit to help insure that no leakage was occurring, he added.

The technology for retracells is relatively new, Foster said, and making a commitment to one in Warren County is a bit of a leap of faith.

"My heart says EPA has no track record for this kind of thing, and no way of knowing how it will affect our children and grandchildren," he said. "But I don't think this can be done by hauling (the building material) off."

Engineers have put the price tag of razing the buildings, hauling off the waste, and disposing of it at $130 million, Foster said.

"That's five times the annual budget of the EPA Region III office in Philadelphia,'' he said.

If the county did support the construction of a retracell at the site, it would be with the understanding that EPA and FMC Corp. would pay for and monitor the cell, Foster said.

However, Foster said, if FMC and EPA agree to shoulder the responsibility of paying for and maintaining the cell, the county should consider supporting the idea.

"I think it will work, he said. "God forbid if it doesn't."

Foster asked for a vote of support from board members, but the supervisors refused to lend their support to the idea until they felt sure the county could never be held liable for cleanup at the site.

Newly introduced Superfund legislation could make localities partially responsible parties in remediation efforts, if the county pursues redevelopment of a Superfund site, as Warren is doing.

Rep. Frank Wolf (R-10th) is attempting to clarify the proposed legislation to help protect localities from becoming entrapped in cleanup commitments through any redevelopment efforts (see story page A 1).

"It's this liability question," said Stage Miller, chairman of the board.

Miller, Scottie Thomson, Stuart Ruidacille, Donald McNeill, and Ashby Crowder.