The Associated Press
The Charleston Gazette, Saturday, June 14, 1997
FMC Corp. has volunteered to become the first test project in the state's "brownfields" program, which allows polluted sites to be cleaned up and redeveloped, officials said Friday.
FMC volunteered 27 acres of land in South Charleston where a plant once stood.
The land will have to be tested and cleaned up over the next few years under the supervision of the state Division of Environmental Protection.
FMC would have to clean the property to a certain level to receive a deed certification. That certification would allow FMC to sell the property, but it would also alert future buyers that the property had been contaminated, said Paul Hill, co-chair of the brownfields rules development committee.
Although the standards of cleanup could be raised if the property's use changes, the chemical company would not be responsible for more cleanup, he said.
The soil and groundwater at the FMC plant are contaminated by carbon tetrachloride, tetrachloroethane and benzene hexachloride.
The company could use a type of cleanser that would allow the now contaminated soil to remain, said Jim Bodamer, FMC reclamation project manager.
FMC hopes to start the cleanup project in 1999, but the company could allow some businesses to move in the least contaminated areas before the cleanup's completion, Bodamer said. The company has suggested retail stores, a warehouse and an ice rink go on the property.
FMC has owned the plant since 1948, using it to make chemical products such as ammonia, caustic solution, bleach and magnesium silicate.
The company demolished the plant in 1985 because of changes in the industry.
Other plants have also operated there, manufacturing products such as carbon tetrachloride, steam, chlorine, caustic soda and carbon disulfide.
The brownfields law was passed last year. An estimated 2,000 state sites could be redeveloped under the law.