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signed to hold viscose waste, the remaining chemicals in the process of using wood pulp to produce rayon. The basins were designed to prevent the waste from entering the Shenandoah River. Over the years, one or more of the basins developed leaks. Hazardous chemicals seeped through vertical rock formations underneath the river, according to Nichols, and not until 1983 was the ground water contamination discovered.
Avtex then bought up the small cluster of houses and some farmland where the contamination was located, and began pumping the ground water back through the plant’s water treatment plant.
The EPA declared the area a Superfund site in 1984. Under federal law, the agency can seek reimbursement up to three times the cleanup costs of hazardous waste sites from the company responsible for the damage. This would be used as a last resort if the company refused to comply with the order, said Harold Yates, an EPA spokesman.
Avtex w'as asked to stop back pumping the water two years ago while the EPA investigated the most effective clean up method, according to Nichols.
“The EPA has now decided that the original Avtex remedy was the right remedy,” said Nichols. The EPA order requires that Avtex and FMC Corp. again begin pumping out the wrater. In addition, they must cleans the residue remaining in the basins that have not been used for
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