DATE: Wednesday, November 12, 1997          TAG: 9711120500

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: FRONT ROYAL                       LENGTH:   23 lines

TOXIC FIBER PLANT'S SMOKESTACK DEMOLISHED

A 30-story smokestack that towered over the Avtex Fibers plant was demolished Tuesday, reduced to a pile of red brick rubble by a dynamite blast.

The 365-foot tower was a symbol of one of Virginia's worst environmental problems. The 440-acre Avtex property on the south fork of the Shenandoah River is a federal Superfund cleanup site because of toxins left by rayon manufacturing from the 1930s to 1989.

The demolition raised a minimum amount of dust to prevent the release of toxins into the surrounding air.

The EPA has spent $27 million since the early 1980s cleaning up the site. Another $33 million will be spent over the next two years to remove the most contaminated buildings. Work to clean the rest of the site will stretch well into the next century. KEYWORDS: EPA TOXIC WASTE

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