By Brad McElhinney
Daily Mail Staff
Charleston Daily Mail, Friday, June 13, 1997

FMC Corp. has stepped forward as the test case to determine whether people will trust contaminated industrial sites scrubbed up to become shopping centers or ice rinks.

The company has filed to become the first project for the fledgling "brownfields" program, which encourages companies to clean up polluted industrial land to use it again.

The Legislature passed a law establishing brownfields two years ago. Last year, groups representing industry, environmental groups and others pounded out the program's rules.

FMC is the first to propose a project, volunteering 27 acres of abandoned riverfront land in South Charleston across from the landmark mound and next to Union Carbide's South Charleston plant.

"It's our first test case," said Jim Kotcon, an environmental lobbyist who helped develop the brownfields rules. "It presents an opportunity to see how brownfields works."

"The real question is, what kinds of contamination are there and what kinds of methods will the company use to clean it? Is it a really dirty site or is it relatively innocuous?"

The answers will come over the next few years.

The company has not specifically determined what should go on the tract of its former plant, but it has suggested retail stores, a warehouse and an ice rink proposed by the city of South Charleston.

As FMC's plan develops, the state Division of Environmental Protection will have to approve every step.

The brownfields program would relieve companies of liability and regulatory punishment unless officials find out the company has lied.

FMC has owned the South Charleston site since 1948, using a plant there to make chemical products, such as ammonia, caustic solution, bleach and magnesium silicate.

The company demolished its plant there in 1985, citing changes in the industry.

Various other plants had made the site home since 1906, manufacturing products such as carbon tetrachloride, steam, chlorine, caustic soda and carbon disulfide.

The plants left their legacy in the soil and groundwater. The three main contaminants are carbon tetrachloride, tetrachlorethane and benzene hexachloride. Other chemicals also pollute the place.

FMC says it has not entirely explored how much the site is contaminated and in what ways, according to its project application report.

The company also has not yet decided how it will clean the land.

FMC could use some sort of cleanser that would allow the present soil to remain rather than be removed, said Jim Bodamer, the company's reclamation project manager.

Over the next few months, plant officials will complete reports on the current site investigations and meet with state environmental regulators to discuss their progress.

From next fall through the following spring, FMC plans more site investigations and risk assessment projects. It hopes to start the cleanup project in 1999.

FMC could allow some businesses to set up shop on the least contaminated portions of the land before the rest of the site is cleaned, Bodamer said.

People who live near the site should soon receive letters from FMC explaining the process. The company has already begun attending community meetings to explain.

FMC has agreed to drop the maximum 45-day limit the state environmental protection division has to address its plan. Bodamer said he understands the agency will need time to work out kinks.

Ken Ellison, who runs the brownfields program for the DEP, agreed that the agency needs a little practice to make sure the procedure works as intended.

"Obviously a test case is a common sense way to see if all the pieces seem to be working," Ellison said. "I think it's going to work and that we won't find that many missing parts in the process."