Efforts to solicit public input on what should happen to the Avtex Fibers property in Front Royal mark a new approach to cleaning up such Superfund sites, according to federal officials.

Officials involved in the cleanup and development of the site will hold a public meeting Wednesday with the goal of forming a group that will pro-vide advice on how to clean up the site without making development of it harder.

Environmental Protection Agency spokesman Richard R. Kuhn called the approach "Superfund recycling."

Once the agency finishes cleaning the site, the Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority may buy the land and develop it with parks or in some other way, he said. By encouraging public comment, the agency hopes to make developing the site easier, he said.

Though the approach has only been tried a few other times around the country, it is "by no means unbroken ground," Kuhn said.

To inform residents about the meeting, Kuhn and other officials knocked on doors near the site Wednesday. They distributed almost 300 fliers and met about 100 residents, Kuhn said.

Richard B. Taylor, president of Vita Nuova, a private contractor trying to involve the community in the cleanup, said the group will include residents, business owners and local, sate and federal officials.

The group’s focus will be to get input from any "stakeholder" in the site, such as people who live near the site or want it to be developed, he said. The group will meet several times a year until the cleanup is complete, he said.

Kuhn said the EPA will retain its regulatory power and remain responsible for cleaning the Avtex site, but it won’t get involved in developing the site once it is cleaned.

If, while cleaning the site, the agency can make redeveloping it easier, it will, he said.

For example, if the community wants to use a section of the site for an athletic field or an office building, the dirt in that section could be graded to accommodate such a use, he said.

Another example on how the stake-holder group will influence cleanup efforts is by getting permission to develop sections of the site before the entire cleanup is completed, Kuhn said.

The agency must follow a process before allowing any land within the site to be developed, but as sections of the site are finished, the agency can help the community develop them, he said.

Kuhn said that because this approach is new, he doesn’t know how the group will function, but it won’t be able to overrule any decision officials make.

For more information, residents should call Kuhn at 1-800-553-2509 or pick up information about the Avtex cleanup at the Samuels Public Library.