Superfund Sites in Virginia

location of Avtex Superfund site in Front Royal (Warren County)
Source: Environmental Protection Agency EnviroMapper

Not all sites qualify for Federal funding. The "Superfund" is used to clean up sites on the National Priorities List (NPL), when "potentially responsible parties" can not be forced to cover all the cleanup costs.

The Avtex Fibers Superfund site, 340 acres on the Shenandoah River in Front Royal, was a rayon-manufacturing complex operated by by American Viscose (1940-1963), FMC Corp. (1963-1977), and Avtex Fibers, Inc. (1977-89). Various wastes were disposed of in unlined basins, landfills, and open piles, plus effluent discharged into the South Fork of the Shenandoah River. This site has generated massive amounts of paperwork (see Superfund Site Progress Profile - AVTEX FIBERS, INC. (EPA ID: VAD070358684)), but this material in a 2004 Record of Decision summarizes the situation:

A. SITE NAME, LOCATION, AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

The Avtex Fibers Superfund Site is a closed fibers manufacturing plant (National Superfund Database ID No. VAD070358684) located in Front Royal, Warren County, Virginia (Site). The Site is located in northwestern Virginia, along the boundary of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the northern entrance of Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park Figure 1 shows a map of the property. The facility occupies approximately 440 acres situated on the east bank of the South Fork of the Shenandoah River. The Norfolk and Western railroad bisects the property and separates 220 acres of disposal areas from over 50 acres occupied by the process facility.

The Randolph Macon Academy borders the Site along the eastern boundary. The former General Chemical facility plant is located along the north/northwest boundary of the property Residential areas are located to the north, south and east of the property boundaries. Drainage to the river occurs through overburden and bedrock ground water flow, and designed features such as the discharge from the on-site wastewater treatment plant (WWTP).

This ROD addresses Operable Unit 10 (OU-10) of the Site. OU-10 consists of Viscose Basins (VB) I through 8, the New Landfill, and the Plant Area Soils (see Figure 1)

B. SITE HISTORY AND ENFORCEMENT ACTIVITIES

Operations at the Site began in 1940, when American Viscose opened a rayon production plant. In 1963, American Viscose sold the plant and property to FMC, and in 1976, the plant and property were sold by FMC to Avtex Fibers, Inc. Subsequently, Avtex Fibers, Inc., conveyed the plant and property to its wholly-owned affiliate Avtex Fibers-Front Royal, Inc. (hereinafter both companies will be referred to as "Avtex"). Rayon fibers were continually produced until the plant closed in 1989. Polyester and polypropylene were also produced over short periods of time.

n 1982, the Commonwealth of Virginia detected carbon disulfide in residential wells located across the River. In 1984, EPA proposed that the Site be addressed under the Federal Superfund program. Between 1986 and 1988, Avtex conducted an investigation of the source and extent of the carbon disulfide in ground water. The investigation determined that waste viscose containing carbon disulfide was leaching from three of the eleven viscose basins (VB 9, 10 and 11 ). In 1989, EPA issued a Record of Decision for pumping and treating the ground water beneath and downgradient of VB 9 through 11. This remedy was subsequently suspended pending a Site-wide investigation.

Shortly after the 1989 Record of Decision was issued, Avtex shut down the facility. After the plant shut down in 1989, EPA assumed control of the facility to ensure there would be no uncontrolled releases of hazardous substances or other threats to human health and the environment. In the next several years following the plant's shutdown. EPA responded to the various emergency and time critical conditions the Site presented.

With the Site becoming more stable, EPA and FMC entered into an EPA administrative order in 1993 requiring FMC to more thoroughly investigate the Site. In 1993 and 1994. EPA and FMC conducted a Site-wide Remedial Investigation (RI) of buildings, sewers, waste disposal areas, on-site soils and ground water to assess the environmental condition of the Site. In 1999, EPA and FMC entered into a Consent Decree, which included work to be performed for OU-10. The Site-wide investigations, coupled with recent data collected to support the completion of the Feasibility Study, have supported the identification of the selected remedies for OU-10...

Operations at the plant generated three major waste types that were disposed at the Site. The first type was generated when the metal-bearing wastewater from the production process was treated with lime in the WWTP; the sludge generated by that treatment was placed in five sulfate basins. The second waste stream was fly ash generated from the combustion of coal in the onsite power plant. Fly ash was disposed of in four fly ash basins and one stockpile. ..

The third waste stream was waste viscose (an off-specification product of the production process) that was disposed in eleven on-site basins...

location of the 30 active and 4 closed Superfund sites in Virginia
Source: Environmental Protection Agency National Priorities List Sites in Virginia

EPA's map of Superfund sites in Virginia provides one guide to seeing the concentration of manufacturing in Virginia in the middle on the 20th Century. Notice the small amount of hazardous waste generated in the southwest part of the state, reflecting the limited number of factories located there in the days before pollution controls.

Coal mining exposes sulfur that can cause acid mine runoff... but typically Virginia mines do not involve heavy metals that are toxic enough to attract EPA's attention. What other patterns can you see? Do urban areas have more sites than rural areas?