Article date: June 16, 2000

By Roger Bianchini

A representative of an environmental group and a local riverfront resident expressed concerns to the Front Royal Town Council at its June 12 meeting about the plan to contain "viscose material" within the basins at the Avtex site along the Shenandoah River in Front Royal.

Those concerns were voiced during a public hearing on recommended adjustments to the town plan adopted in March 1998 concerning Avtex cleanup and redevelopment. The changes have been suggested due to evolving plans developed over the past year for the site.

Those developments revolve primarily around the plans being made with the input of the Multi-Stakeholders Group in developing a plan for the recreational conservancy park near the river and two recreational parks elsewhere on the property.

The Multi-Stakeholders Group consists of interested citizens, citizens groups, as well as representatives of the Environmental Protection Agency, FMC Corporation, the local Economic Development Authority and the Department of Environmental Quality.

Elisa Schwartz, representing the Womens’s Alliance for Environmental Justice and Renewal, and Ann Andersen, a property owner on Riverview Shores Drive, both objected to the existing plan to cover the basins with polluted material still contained within them.

Noting the basins proximity to the river, Schwartz expressed concern about the monitoring system that will track possible leakage from the basins beyond the 30- year period during which former owner FMC will be responsible. She suggested that a community monitoring group be allowed to assist at the site.

Schwartz also asked for clarification from the town on future responsibility for environmental problems occurring on the site and who would handle the necessary actions to deal with such problems if they arose.

Andersen cited the toxic nature of the materials being left in the basins and said, "if they ever get into the atmosphere, Front Royal and those of us downriver would be extremely injured by it." Andersen added that she felt that the materials shouldn’t remain on the site and suggested that it would be silly for the town to make plans for recreational areas and business parks around the basins without knowing the EPA’s final solution for, "this viscose material."

Contacted on Tuesday, EPA Remedial Project Manager, Bonnie Gross described the materials that the EPA plans to enclose in the sulfate basins as, "metal-bearing sludge, containing primarily zinc."

She repeated the EPA’s previously stated position that tests have indicated, "no human health risks associates with those materials."

She admitted that the sludge did pose a health threat to aquatic life, primarily fish, and said that the EPA continues to test aquatic birds for possible contamination from eating fish exposed to the toxins. At this time, she said that, "no abnormalities," had been detected on exposed birds internal systems by EPA testing. Those tests are continuing, she added.

Gross said the basins area contained about, " a million cubic yards of sludge. So we’re dealing with a large volume out there."

The EPA is in the process of designing a geo-textile cover that will be used to contain the metal-bearing sludge left on the site. The plan is to dewater the basins and consolidate all of the sludge into one basin which will be surrounded with the liner system currently being developed by the EPA.

Several feet of clean soil will then be used to cover the basins and a vegetation cover will be planted on top of the site.

Gross said the method was a common technique utilized in such cases but admitted that the EPA had no history with encasement of the particular type of sludge they are dealing with at the Avtex site.

Concerning monitoring, Gross said that in addition to FMC’s ongoing monitoring requirements, which will extend for at least 30 years, the EPA will be engaged in an ongoing monitoring process.

"We have a five-year review system," Gross explained, " and there is no end there," she added of the review process.

After hearing from Schwartz, Andersen and EDA director Steven Heavener during the public hearing on the proposed changes to the town’s plan for the site, council unanimously approve Robert Tennett’s motion, seconded by Walter Duncan, to amend the requested changes into its plan for the site. A second, and final, reading on the changes will be scheduled for the council’s June 26 meeting.