May 31, 1995

Parties involved in discussions over cleanup at the Avtex site say they are optimistic an agreement can be hammered out by early next year to redevelop a portion of the site for new industry once that portion is declared clean.

Fred Foster, president of the Warren County Redevelopment Corp, was jubilant last Friday following a Thursday meeting in Philadelphia with representatives from Front Royal and Warren County, the Environmental Protection Agency's regional office, the U.S. Department of Justice, FMC Corp., and an Avtex bankruptcy trustee.

"I finally have some good news," Foster told reporters. "We came away from the meeting yesterday with a positive plan of action. We may have some buildings by January 1996", that would be declared clean and subsequently freed of concerns about past, present and future liability at the Superfund site.

Plans to obtain soil samples will be expedited to give officials a picture of how clean the area is that they want to be reopened for business.

At least eight acres of the site, or 400,000 square feet of buildings, could potentially be freed up for future industrial use. The area, along Kendrick Lane on the north part of the site, had been used for warehouses, shipping and a dispensary since the rayon manufacturing plant opened in 1933, until the state shut it down for polluting the Shenandoah River with PCBs in 1989.

That area is connected under the same roof as the manufacturing process area. A corridor separating the two areas of the building would be sealed off with brick, mortar or concrete to allow cleanup on one side while remodeling occurs on the other end, Foster said.

The day before their meeting in Philadelphia, Foster and other local officials suited up in white suits to visit Avtex buildings where manufacturing processes were undertaken.

"We had a question, ‘Could we take the roof off, gut the inside and try to salvage some of the old buildings that need to be demolished.’ There were 10 acres of buildings."

But afterwards, he concluded the buildings were too deteriorated to salvage. "It's too bad," he said.

Foster had complained about the slow progress over the cleanup, EPA's unwillingness to involve local officials more actively in cleanup discussions, and bureaucratic foot-dragging over getting the shipping and warehousing area released from liability provisions under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act. New industry has been kept at bay due to the liability issue.

"The bureaucracy of going through any federal agency will make you pull your hair out. I won't give them the satisfaction of quitting. I don't have enough sense to quit. I won't admit defeat," Foster said.

Unlike the last meeting with interested parties involved in Avtex in January, when he left feeling "discouraged," this meeting was "upbeat," he said, and left him buoyed with hopes a deal can soon be struck.

David Street, senior counsel with the environmental enforcement section in the U.S. Department of Justice, said he, too, was hopeful.

"Assuming sampling results come back good, then I share his (Foster's) optimism. I think we can get things resolved."

DOJ prosecutes civil and criminal Superfund cases on behalf of the EPA, in addition to heading up settlement negotiations deciding who is responsible for cleanup, and to what extent.

Street said he distributed a draft agreement to Foster that would lay out the terms of the U.S. government's "covenant not to sue" which would be part of any prospective purchasing agreement affecting Ownership at the site. "We're talking about a very discrete part of the site," he said.

However, "It's a very tough issue because it's subject to negotiation," the Justice official added.

But saying that the covenant not to sue would resolve liability concerns to everyone's satisfaction is premature, Streets indicated.

Foster said area state legislators have been approached and indicated their willingness to sponsor legislation in the General Assembly that would protect redevelopers from lawsuits, as well as afford protection to the local redevelopment corporation so the site can be reused to support the county and town's industrial development goals.

"We've been in a cooperative, redevelopment mode for years," said Bob Fields; vice president of environmental, health and safety for the FMC Corp. which owned the site from 1963 to 1976 and has spent millions of dollars in cleanup costs. "It's gratifying to see agreements being made by all the parties," he said.

"It's just a shame to see that big old factory sitting there when it can be revitalized. It's such an uplifting experience," to be involved in the process, he said.

Similar efforts were undertaken at another FMC site in Meadville, Pa. Part of the site was a state Superfund site, and involved phased re-use of the property, he said.

EPA and FMC have collaborated to study the Avtex site as part of the remedial process. Phase one studies have recently been completed, and the second phase of studies will start this summer, he said.

Some problems remain at the site, such as at large holding ponds at the site which once stored liquid waste and now fill up with rain water. "When it gets hot the waste sediments in the soil have an odor," Fields said.

Some nearby residents have complained about the familiar smell of Avtex to this day.

Up to 150 million gallons of this waste-tainted water is treated onsite before it is discharged into the Shenandoah River.

Without the treatment facility, the ponds would overflow and untreated wastewater would wind up in the Shenandoah River, Fields added.