The Northern Virginia Daily

Article date: June 28, 1996

 Deal on reuse of Avtex could come soon

By: Diane Hartson

The chairman of the Warren County Redevelopment Corp. said he left a meeting Thursday with Environmental Protection Agency officials confident that a deal has been struck on reusing a clean portion of the Avtex site in Front Royal.

Officials from the two agencies spent about four hours in Washington, D.C., reviewing procedures for transfer of the property to the corporation for redevelopment, Frederick P. Foster said.

"It was a good meeting, a very productive meeting," he said. "If we write the prospective purchase agreement in a way that protects this community, we've got a deal.” 

Foster said an agreement should be signed within six months to a year. It will take that long to iron out the language of the agreement and have it reviewed by an environmental law expert to ensure that the Front Royal and Warren County are protected on any liability issues, he said. 

The plant closed in 1989 after more than 2,000 violations of environmental laws. Foster said there is a 200-acre section with chemical lagoons that will never be touched by the corporation.

But the agreement being worked out now calls for a site of between 50 and 60 acres to be released to the corporation for redevelopment as light industrial or commercial space.

That includes about 400,000 square feet of buildings, 9.5 acres of which are under roof, as well as open areas and a parking area, Foster said. None of the property being considered for redevelopment is contaminated, he said.

Because under the federal Superfund law future owners can be held responsible for the cost of cleaning up past pollution they had no hand in creating, the agreement won't go forward until the corporation is assured that the community cannot be held liable for any pollution, Foster said.

Most of Thursday's meeting was spent reviewing the legal language required to satisfy both parties, he said.