THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 20, 1997 TAG: 9702200070
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER AND ESTHER DISKIN, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: 52 lines
About 20 families in the Washington Park public housing complex will be moved to local hotels in April to make way for the first part of a toxic cleanup at the abandoned Abex metalworks factory.
The residents will be given at least 10 days' notice and will receive a daily stipend for meals and expenses, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday.
The residents' hotel bills, daily stipends and storage costs for their furniture will be paid by Abex Corp. The company is also funding most of the estimated $21 million cost to clean up the plant, which is a Superfund toxic-waste site.
From 1928 until 1978, Abex Corp. and its predecessors turned scrap railroad car bearings into new ones at the factory, but buried much of their wastes - including lead, zinc and copper residues - beneath undeveloped lots.
The most dangerous contaminant is lead, which in high concentrations is known to cause neurological and learning problems and is considered likely to cause cancer.
In January 1996, the company and the federal government reached an agreement on a cleanup plan. It calls for tons of contaminated soil to be removed from within a 700-foot ring around the abandoned factory. Sections of the Washington Park public housing project and a community playground are within that section.
The families that will be relocated live in apartments adjacent to the factory site.
As soon as they move out, demolition of the factory will begin, EPA officials said. The demolition is expected to take about two weeks, followed by several weeks of testing to determine whether the site is safe. Families are expected to be allowed to return in about five to six weeks, officials said.
EPA officials said they will relocate other residents, who live downwind from the demolition site, if air monitoring and sampling data show that contamination is threatening their safety.
The entire clean-up is expected to take three years, including building a city facility, possibly a firehouse or administrative offices, in the area.
Residents have long asked to be permanently moved. On Wednesday, about 15 attended the EPA's presentation at the Washington Park community center. Most seemed pleased to hear that the cleanup is beginning.
Margaret Crawford lives in the 1500 block of Green St., next door to the foundry. She's not frightened to live next door, she said, but is miffed about the lack of correct information coming to residents about their fate.
``You come to the realization that it needs to be cleaned up,'' she said. ILLUSTRATION: Color VP map
CLEANUP SITE