July 17, 1999

A new Environmental Protection Agency program for "recycling" 10 Superfund sites across the nation, including the Avtex Fibers site, will be announced next week in Front Royal.

A separate program using grant funds from the U.S. Soccer Federation Foundation to create soccer fields at Ed Stump Park, a 30-acre section of the Avtex site, also will be announced.

Officials said the former Avtex plant, which has been on the Superfund list since 1986, will be one of 10 pilot programs, one in each of the EPA's 10 regions across the United States.

Grants of up to $100,000 will be available to help in redeveloping each Superfund site for economic development uses.

Several officials, including Carter Cornick, spokesman for U.S. Sen. John W. Warner, and an EPA spokeswoman who asked not to be named said EPA Administrator Carol M. Browner is expected to attend a news conference Friday at the Avtex site in Front Royal to announce the program.

EPA spokesman Richard R. Kuhm confirmed Friday that the program will make available grants of up to $100,000 for redevelopment of 10 Superfund sites, including Avtex. "There have been 10 communities picked overall," said Cornick, adding that Avtex was selected, at least in part, because of "the hard work of the local officials and the congressional delegation" to have the site released for redevelopment.

Local officials have been working on that effort for about seven years and transfer of the first cleaned portion of the site to local hands is expected to occur by December.

The Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority has created a plan for redevelopment of the 440-acre site that calls for a mixture of hotel, office and light industrial uses on the eastern of the site and a nature preserve and recreational uses on the portion of the site between the railroad tracks and the river.

"We're delighted," state Secretary of Natural Resources John Paul Woodley said Friday. "This is very exciting news for Virginia that has been a long time coming for the people of Front Royal. Everything seems to be coming together at last."

Last week, officials from EPA and the Justice Department announced a settlement calling for the FMC Corp., a former owner of the Avtex plant, to pay $63 million for the cleanup of the site, although, under an earlier court ruling, three federal agencies will reimburse FMC a third of any money it spends.

That consent order was filed July 9 in federal court in Roanoke. It also calls for FMC to spend $1 million to aid the local authority in demolishing several delapidated buildings remaining on the site, provided the authority is able to obtain grants to pay for the other $11 million to $12 million cost of the demolition.

Although the EPA has demolished about 17 acres of contaminated buildings at Avtex, the remaining buildings contain no contaminants. They do contain asbestos and lead, but the EPA doesn't handle asbestos and lead cleanups.

The authority has received $ 25O,O00 in federal funding to be used to remove asbestos and lead from the buildings.

No details were available Friday on whether the pilot program funding of up to $100,000 will be used for that project or some other facet of the redevelopment effort.

The news conference also will be used to announced the plan to develop soccer fields at Superfund sites, including Avtex, using funds from the U.S. Soccer Federation Foundation. Foundation and EPA officials on Friday wouldn't release details.

But a foundation news release issued in April says it was making a "$100,000 investment to establish a partnership with the Environmental Protection Agency for the ultimate development of soccer fields."

That release says, "The EPA program identifies cleaned Superfund sites nationwide that have not yet been used to full benefit and the government agency is eager to return the sites to productive use. The EPA will select 10-12 pilot sites across the country and will perform engineering and earth-moving action to provide flat surfaces with proper drainage, which can then ultimately be turned over to local municipalities or soccer groups for field construction."

According to a local official who asked not to be named, the Avtex site's Stump Park is the only Superfund site for which a "design team" has been hired for the soccer project. Once a preliminary design has been created, it will be determined whether there is sufficient funding to prepare the fields, the official said.