AUGUST 19, 1999

The Prospective purchaser agreement calling for the transfer of land at the Avtex Fibers Superfund site in Front Royal to Warren County will be completed by Sept. 21, according to County Attorney Douglas W. Napier.

The U.S. Bankruptcy court in Reading, Pa., has set a hearing on the Avtex bankruptcy case for that day and the agreement has to be completed before the hearing, he said Wednesday.

The bankruptcy judge will, on that day, approve the plan for reorganization for the Avtex site, including the plan to shift ownership of the land in the town to the county, he said.

"The parties will have to have an agreement in place prior to the 21^st because the bankruptcy court has to sanction that," Napier said.

He has received a draft agreement from the Environmental Protection Agency and is working on a response, he said.

The agreement will be the major move to shift ownership of the land, he said. There may be other minor issues, but nothing of the consequence of the prospective-purchaser agreement, he said.

The county has been struggling for several years to smooth the way for takeover of the site as portions are cleaned.

The Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority has created a plan to develop the 440-acre site into a mix of commercial, light industrial, office and recreational uses.

The largest stumbling block to the redevelopment over the years has been that he Superfund Act holds future landowners responsible for cleanup costs of past pollution discovered on Superfund sites.

Pollution at the former Avtex rayon plant is extensive. The plant was forced to close in 1989 when its permit to discharge into the Shenandoah River was pulled because of thousands of violations of it.

The prospective-purchaser agreement is expected to include provisions exempting the county from that liability.

County officials have said they expect about 110 acres of the site, including the parking lot on the north side of Kendrick Lane and a large portion of the old plant site, to be the first sections transferred to county hands.

The authority’s redevelopment plan calls for demolishing the remaining buildings except the front building at a cost of $12 million to $ 17 million.

U.S. Sen. John W. Warner recently pushed legislation through Congress authorizing the spending of $ 17 million for the demolition.

But the money hasn’t been appropriated. Warner and 10^th district Rep. Frank R. Wolf have said they hope Congress will agree this fall to appropriate the money in the fiscal 2000 budget.

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