July 09, 1999

WASHINGTON -- The former owner of Virginia's largest private Superfund toxic waste site has agreed to a settlement with the government to clean up the site at an estimated cost of $63 million over seven years, government officials said Thursday.

The Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency were to announce the settlement with FMC Corp., a Chicago-based chemical and machinery company, at a news conference Friday.

Controversy has surrounded the cleanup of the Avtex Fibers plant near Front Royal for years. More than $40 million already has been spent trying to rid the 440-acre site of toxic chemicals. It is Virginia's No. 1 Superfund waste site and one of the major Superfund sites in the country.

FMC Corp. owned the plant from 1963 to 1976, when it was sold to Avtex Fibers Inc. That company declared bankruptcy in 1989 after state officials revoked Avtex's water permit, citing more than 2,000 violations for polluting the nearby Shenandoah River.

The Justice Department will announce under the agreement that FMC Corp. will commit itself to cleaning up the site within seven years. The Environmental Protection Agency estimated the cost at about $63 million.

Tom Kline, a spokesman for FMC Corp., declined comment on the settlement, but said company officials would have a statement on Friday.

FMC Corp., already has spent about $20 million on pollution controls at the former rayon manufacturing plant, including construction a water filtration facility. The EPA has spent another $27 million for cleanup since the plant became a Superfund site in 1986.

Located in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the plant once employed more than 3,000 workers. Originally owned by American Viscose Corp., it opened in the 1930s and during World War II was a major supplier of rayon for tires.

Over the years, a smorgasbord of toxic chemicals spewed from the plant's 365-foot smokestack onto nearby buildings and the open countryside that surrounded it. The red brick smokestack was demolished in 1997 as part of the cleanup.

According to state and federal officials, the 440-acre area is contaminated with cancer-causing asbestos, PCBs, mercury, lead, and carbon disulfides, which cause nerve damage and other ailments. Contaminated lagoons and sludge pools dot the area.

Already more than 8,000 tons of contaminated soil, 2,000 tons of chemicals, 240,000 gallons of flammable chemicals and acids, and 3,000 bags of asbestos have been removed from the site.