All Environmental Protection Agency-funded workers, including security guards, may be pulled from the Avtex Fibers site in Front Royal if the federal shutdown continues, EPA Region III Administrator W. Michael McCabe said Thursday.

About 800,000 federal workers have been off the job since Tuesday while President Clinton and Republican congressional leaders fight over the federal budget bill. Clinton on Wednesday threatened to continue the standoff for up to 180 days if necessary.

So far, elimination of nonessential government services hasn't affected EPA Superfund operations because they are part of a separate trust fund, McCabe said.

But if the budget standstill continues the Avtex Superfund site may be affected, he said.

" The fund is augmented by the taxpayers until we get money from" those responsible for polluting a Superfund site, McCabe said. The Superfund Trust Fund may run out in two weeks. If it runs out, we are actually looking at right now trying to figure out what to do with the Superfund workers.

If those people, both government employees and contractors, cannot be paid, "we'd stop dead in our tracks," he said.

Not only would that halt cleanup efforts at the site, but other workers, including guards, would have to be sent home, he said.

"If we're out of money and we can't pay them, it would be tough to call them back in," McCabe said.

That could be "very dangerous" for Front Royal, he said.

"You could have people get into it (plant). You have the lagoons out there. Who knows what might happen out there if you had no security," he said.

The site is guarded because it contains a large quantity of hazardous materials, both inside the buildings, some of which are slated for destruction because they are in danger of falling down, and outside in the lagoons and other areas.

State Secretary of Natural Resources Becky Norton Dunlop accused McCabe of "scaremongering" as part of a Democratic tactic to force the Republicans hands in the budget fight.

"All Bill Clinton has to do is sign the continuing resolution" calling for federal funding to continue until the budget issue is resolved, she said. "It's a scare tactic. I don't think that's something that will come about."

Warren County Fire Chief Dickie Mabie, though, said the prospect offered by McCabe doesn't scare him.

"I don't think it would be a major problem' he said. "My personal feeling it would be remote (trespassing at the site) because of the publicity Avtex has gotten."

Any hazard wouldn't be to the town, but to potential trespassers and any emergency workers who might have to respond to help anyone who wandered into the site, Mabie said.

"There are buildings out there that are ready to fall down," he said.

Guy Peduto of Zarroli & Associates, the company that has bought the plants assets, said the company won't be able to take over responsibility for security if the EPA contractors are pulled off the job.

When asked if the Department of Natural Resources would send in someone to keep the site secure, Ms. Dunlop said she didn't believe McCabe's scenario was likely to happen and "we only deal in reality here."