The Warren Sentinel

Article date: August 22, 1996

 FMC wants to decontaminate Avtex buildings with water

FMC Corp. has proposed cleaning contaminated Avtex buildings with a high-pressure power wash of plain water. No one has studied how the wastewater would be handled.

By: Teresa Brumback

Water sprayed from high-pressure hoses could be the method used to "decontaminate" 30 acres of highly contaminated buildings at Avtex, according to Bonnie Gross, the Environmental Protection Agency's regional project manager.

The water method is an option now being explored as an alternative to razing the buildings and burying the debris onsite or hauling the debris away. The "high pressure power wash" was suggested recently by FMC Corp., which, as a former owner of the Avtex site, is responsible under federal law for a portion of cleanup costs.

EPA Region III has begun an in-house study of the building hose-down option, which is expected to be completed this month.

The study is simply a feasibility study. Another study would address how the wastewater would be handled if buildings were simply hosed down, both inside and out, Gross said. Nothing but water would be used, Gross explained.

How the wastewater would be handled is not clear, she replied. FMC "hasn't told us how they would do that."

"Later we would have to study how to collect the water" and dispose of it, she said.

FMC operates a wastewater treatment plant facility at the site, which treats runoff before it is discharged into the Shenandoah River.

If a way to route or collect the wash water were developed, the FMC treatment plant could be utilized to treat the water used to spray down tile contaminated buildings, Gross said.

"I think they (FMC) had a legitimate proposal to EPA to decontaminate the buildings," she said.

"Their approach was to 'decon' a large portion of the buildings, the high chemical hazard buildings, and leave them onsite. A small portion of the buildings they recommended should be demolished with off-site disposal."

Gross did not have cost estimates for the proposal.

The structural integrity of the buildings will also be addressed in the latest study. The Roy F. Weston consulting firm had earlier said they were in danger of collapsing and should be demolished.

"We're reevaluating the appropriate action to take in the buildings," said Gross.

That study will be a "feasibility" study to be done solely by EPA Region III officials. It is expected to be wrapped up this month, Gross said.

Despite earlier press reports, Gross would not characterize the agency as leaning toward consideration of one option over another.

"We haven't decided if a landfill will be placed on site," she said.

However, she conceded that officials continue to be concerned about the impact to the environment from the landfill option, from its proximity to the Shenandoah River and its potential to damage ground water quality and a wetland at the site.

"I think they're all considerations," she said.

EPA did not publicly announce the plans for this latest study it has undertaken or other recent major developments in the Avtex cleanup saga. In the past, former EPA Avtex contact Andrew Palestini pointed to Environmental Issues Management, Inc., in Washington, a public relations firm hired by FMC, Inc., for information about the status of cleanup underway. FMC puts out a newsletter on the Avtex cleanup.

Pat Gaughan, current Avtex spokesperson for the EPA, said the agency is still exploring cleanup options for the contaminated buildings.

"We're concerned about safety and nothing is written in stone at this point in time," Gaughan said from her office in Wheeling, W. Va.

FMC Corp., which is leading the remedial investigation for certain portions of the Avtex site, met with EPA in November 1995 and provided comments on the onsite landfill option recommended by Roy F. Weston, a consulting firm hired last year to review the landfill versus offsite disposal options.

FMC disagreed with Weston's recommendation that buildings be razed and deposited in a specially lined landfill jug on the site.