VIENNA - Under a voluntary agreement with the Department of Environmental Protection, the former Johns Manville property in Vienna will be cleaned up by Structures Resources.
The 33-acre property at 2905 Third Ave. is now undergoing demolition by Structures Resources. Under the voluntary remediation agreement, the company will clean up contaminants and investigate any potential human health and ecological risks associated with the current and future use of the site, according to a press release from the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.
Bob Childers, a Huntington developer and owner of Structure Resources Inc. and Childers Properties, bought the property in July. He specializes in cleaning up properties that might have had potentially hazardous chemicals on the property.
Childers has done development projects in the Huntington area as well as Commerce Park, Cabell Gateway, the Teays Commons business park, the East Hills Professional Center, the West Hills Professional Center, and townhouse and apartment complexes.
The site was formerly used to treat cut wood with a chromate copper arsenate solution, and it was the site of the Johns Manville Glass Fiber Manufacturing Plant from 1908 until 2006, according to the DEP.
West Virginia's Voluntary Remediation and Redevelopment Act encourages voluntary cleanups of contaminated sites, as well as redevelopments of abandoned and under-utilized properties, in the hope of counteracting the lack of growth on sites with contamination or perceived contamination, said the DEP.
As long as a company is following all the rules and regulations of the voluntary program, typical DEP enforcement actions, as well as liability under environmental laws, will be limited while the company cleans up a site, the DEP said.
The voluntary program gives companies the ability to redevelop sites with existing industrial infrastructure at a lower price, and provides financial incentives to invest in "brownfields," abandoned or underused industrial and commercial facilities available for re-use, the DEP said.
