The Northern Virginia Daily

Article date: October 14, 2004

Avtex cleanup funding approved

 By William C. Flook

 The U.S. House and Senate have approved a bill authorizing money for the demolition of the final major Avtex building.

The FY 2005 Department of Defense authorization bill passed the House and Senate on Saturday, authorizing the Army Corps of Engineers to spend $5 million for cleanup of the Avtex Superfund site, including the demolition of the powerhouse complex that was left standing after much of the plant was torn down by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1997.

Anne McClure, spokeswoman for Rep. Frank Wolf, R-10th, said the approval was the result of work by Wolf and Sen. John Warner, R Virginia, to tag the provision onto the defense bill, which she expects President Bush to sign into law soon.

“Now we can see the light at the end of the tunnel,” said Front Royal- Warren County Economic Development Authority Board Chairman John LaBarca, who projects the site will be cleared by 2007 or 2008.

Other smaller buildings also remain standing, decisions on how to handle their removal will be made in the next several months, he said.

Avtex, which closed in 1989, was once the world’s largest rayon plant.

The highly polluted area was declared an EPA Superfund site in 1986, requiring all companies that owned the rayon plant, past and present, to shoulder the burden of cleanup.  FMC took over the plant in 1963 from the American Viscose Co., and sold it to Avtex in 1976.

Since FMC is the only one of the three companies to remain in business, it is largely responsible for cleaning the approximately 440-acre site, slated to become a 175-acre business park, a 240-acre conservancy park, and 30-acre soccer complex.

The Army Corps of Engineers, however, has shouldered some of the burden of cleanup.  LaBarca says the agency will most likely begin demolition in February or March after asbestos has been removed from the building, and be completed by midyear.  FMC site manager Doug Bement said the company, which is about halfway finished with its cleanup work, budgets an average $10 million a year for Avtex remediation.  Currently, the company is conducting wastewater treatment, building decontamination, sewer removal, cleanup of subsurface soils, and closing basins.

“We’re working on all those pieces at the same time,” he said.  “They’re all inextricably entwined.”

The EPA, which in August gave the green light to the Economic Development Authority to develop 34 acres of uncontaminated land on the site, will review FMC’s cleanup work.

LaBarca said the EDA is working to attract major developers for the site once cleanup is complete.

He said the EDA will vote on a strategic plan for Avtex at its meeting at 8 a.m. Friday, and afterward will pass the document to the Front Royal Town Council and the Warren County Board of Supervisors for approval.

“It basically provides direction on where we’re going to take the park,” LaBarca said.