Article date: February 27, 2001

Meeting about site’s current projects is open to residents.

By Ashley May

Area residents interested in the cleanup and redevelopment of the Avtex Fibers Superfund site may attend the eighth multi-stakeholders group meeting Thursday in the media center at Randoloph Macon Academy.

Agencies involved will offer updates on cleanup and redevelopment projects and gather input on alternatives from the public at the meeting, scheduled to begin at 6 p.m.

The meeting will have two parts, according to Richard Goss, project manager for Decision Quest , a private company managing community outreach and communication efforts for FMC Corp., the major private stakeholder responsible for cleaning up the plant.

An environmental education workshop will be the subject of the first portion of the meeting, scheduled for 6 to 7 p.m., Goss said.

FMC employees assigned to oversee the remediation work will explain the basin closure process, during which several waste product basins on the plant site will be cleaned and capped. The basin closures are scheduled to begin this spring, "as soon as weather allows," Goss said.

"We’ll be talking about the final design and the timing," he said.

Other issues for the environmental workshop portion of the meeting are groundwater monitoring and the options that the Environmental Protection Agency will develop for portions of the cleanup project labeled "unit 10," which includes eight viscose basins and landfills containing construction debris.

The 500-acre plant has been divided into operable units to make the cleanup process easier to manage, Goss said.

According to Richard Kuhn, community involvement coordinator for the EPA, the EPA’s options for those aspects of the plant labeled unit 10 will be determined through an "engineering evaluation and cost analysis" process.

"Cleanup alternatives are being developed currently for that, we hope at some time (probably late summer) we can present those alternatives to the public," Kuhn said. Stakeholders in the Avtex plant, who include former employees, former owners and those involved in the cleanup and remediation process, need to be well educated about the cleanup process because their input is important to the eventual outcome, he said.

"We’re hoping that the stakeholders will be able to give meaningful, well-educated input," Goss said. "We want to preview where we will go over the next couple of stakeholders meetings."

The multi-stakeholders meeting will begin at 7 p.m.

Topics include:

• A professional grade soccer complex, currently in its design stage. The EPA and the U.S. Soccer Foundation have agreed to poroduce several high quality soccer fields on about 30 acres of the Avtex site as a joint project, and the time line, design cost, and grant application process will be discussed, Kuhn said.

• A discussion on the work of the historical committee, which will set up a visitors center also to serve as a repository for historic documents pertaining to Avtex property, Avtex retirees, former employees and others are being recorded on videotape for an eventual interpretation of the plant’s history.

• Stephen Heavener, executive director of the Front Royal Warren County Economic Development Authority, discussing the redevelopment projects, which include a "green" design concept for the rehabilitated Avtex administration building. He will also discuss the use of a $100,000 derelict structure grant provided by the state for the redevelopment of the building, which is to become office space.

• Bill Cutler, project manager for FMC, giving an update on the progress of a second phase archaeological dig on a 12-acre portion of the property.

• The Army Corps of Engineers updating its role in the cleanup, which include asbestos abatement work and demolition projects.