Asbestos clean up plan approved for Valley Forge National Historical Park
Federal officials have finally approved an $11.6 million plan to clean up an asbestos-contaminated waste dump at Valley Forge National Historical Park following nearly a decade of negotiations.
Approximately 112 acres along County Line Road near the Welcome Center's lower parking lot are contaminated by asbestos and other toxic wastes, the legacy of a manufacturing operation from the late 19th century to the early 1970s.
The remediation plan, which was recently approved by state environmental officials and the U.S. Department of the Interior, calls for excavation and removal of the most heavily contaminated soils and then re-landscaping the area. These soils will be moved to a facility that is permitted to dispose of such wastes and the area will then be filled in with clean topsoil, graded, seeded with native grasses, and planted with trees and shrubs.
The project will be shared by the state and the federal government. Both are due to meet with a mediator next month to determine who will pay for what, said Andy Hartzell, an attorney with the state Department of Environmental Protection.
According to a settlement agreement the company reached with the federal government, $500,000 of the costs would be paid by the Keene Corp., Hartzell said.
According to a statement from the National Park Service, Keene operated an asbestos-manufacturing facility on private land that was surrounded by Valley Forge State Park. Keen is now a part of Reinhold Industries. The park was taken over by the National Park Service in 1976.
"Other contaminants have been detected, including arsenic, lead and PCBs. Contributing to the contamination was another former company, Baldwin Ehret Magnesia Co., which Keene acquired in the 1960s", Hartzell said.
Contamination has been also found at a number of old quarries and in a drainage ditch that runs under the Conrail tracks and empties into the Schuylkill.
