
DATE: Saturday, August 2, 1997              TAG: 9708020321

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MEREDITH COHN, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   82 lines

STATE HELPS RECLAIM OLD INDUSTRIAL SITES

Yucky, dirty stuff left behind by old manufacturers has created some ugly ducklings around Hampton Roads' business districts.

A new state program aims to turn them into swans.

Virginia has joined 36 other states in creating programs to tackle abandoned and idle land that became contaminated during years of industrial use. Called brownfields, an estimated 130,000 to 450,000 of them exist nationwide.

So far, 35 businesses have signed up and eight have completed Virginia's voluntary program, created by the General Assembly in 1995 and officially opened in June. In exchange for cleaning up their property, the companies get a certificate saying the land is clean and safe in the state's eyes - something they can show to potential buyers or tenants who don't want responsibility for someone else's mess.

In Hampton Roads, 10 businesses have entered the program and one of those has finished. One more, Norfolk Gas Plant, is being considered, according to Erica Dameron, who runs the program at the state Department of Environmental Quality.

``This is the wave of the future,'' said John Shailer, the senior attorney for Richmond-based Commonwealth Gas Services Inc., one of the companies in the program.

Commonwealth inherited Portsmouth Manufactured Gas Plant's problems on the Portsmouth waterfront when it bought the company - but notthe property - in 1981. The company has never owned the contaminated property, where gas was manufactured from the mid-1850s to the mid-1950s. But the company agreed about four years ago that it was responsible for cleanup, along with at least two other former and present site owners.

But Shailer said the investment is worth it.

``There is no point in continuing urban sprawl when we have these wonderful old industrial sites near or in the nation's cities already with infrastructure,'' he said. ``We can put these sites back on the tax rolls after they're cleaned, get them back into productive conditions, maybe create jobs, clear away an eyesore. There's something in it for everyone.''

For many companies, cleaning up a site is the only way to sell or lease it. Most real estate contracts require disclosure of environmental problems.

Joe McKeon, senior environmental specialist for BASF Corp., said the company's Williamsburg plant became contaminated from years of manufacturing acrylic fibers used in carpets. The company has since moved its operation to Georgia, and wants to put it back into a condition usable by someone else.

``Any site operating through the '60s and '70s has problems, because the manufacturing standards were not significantly protective,'' McKeon said.

The agreements call for companies to restore their property for use as another industrial site or for residential use, which carries tougher standards.

DEQ's Dameron said companies are eligible for the program if they are not required by another government agency or court to clean up their site. The nation's most contaminated sites have landed on the federal Environmental Protection Agency's Superfund National Priority List.

State and business leaders expect the voluntary program to escape the complex web of litigation surrounding Superfund, which critics charge has wasted the bulk of its $30 billion in funding.

``These sites are so low on anyone's priority lists that no one would probably ever get to them if the companies didn't volunteer,'' Dameron said.

Dameron said most companies use an environmental consultant or lawyer, although they are not required.

Richard D. Lutz of Industrial Marine Services Inc., an environmental consulting company, said brownfields are often misunderstood.

``Prospective purchasers have been scared away for fear of liability,'' said Lutz, during a seminar he hosted on the subject with Vandeventer, Black, Meredith & Martin, an environmental law firm.

Lutz and Patrick A. Genzler, an environmental lawyer from the firm, lectured real estate agents, bankers and business people on brownfields, who is eligible for the state program and how to avoid pitfalls.

``Sometimes the perception that there is contamination is enough,'' Genzler said. ``But there are opportunities here.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

BROWNFIELDS

Abandoned or unused industrial sites that are contaminated from

years of manufacturing, dumping or other activity.

STATE'S PROGRAM

The Virginia Voluntary Remediation Program allows businesses to

voluntarily clean up brownfields and have them certified safe and

clean. The state's approval helps owners redevelop or sell property.