NCD980602163_19980430_Warren County PCB Landfill_SERB C_News & Observer article - Auction may aid landfill cleanup-OCR

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byWard'DalllformerCG.~Jtaleltb. But the government.._ the proper1iJ In . 1989 88 collateral ill' a $U million penalt;y leYled against 'Ward h' llleplly spraying toxic oil along rural roads in 14 counties. The compan,y bas alnce paid $3.5 million to the state and f\!deral governments as reim-bursement for cleanup costs, said Kathryn Jones Cooper, a special deputy attorney gen-eral. t So when the federal General Services Administration auctions the surplus property next month at a Durham hotel, the state hopes to use its share of the profits to help pay for detoxification of the contaminated soil; which since 1982 has sat kr a landfill new: the North Carolina-Vll'ginia bordel: I "That's extra money on top of what we col-lected," Cooper said. "We're hoping that will go
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'lmJ'.NEWS & OmvElt THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 1998 · '. ·-.. -.,... .. ~ . ·ucTION CONTINUE!;) FROM PAGE· 1 e
· toward the cleanup of the landfill _
upin w~ County." .
Under an ~twith the fed-
eral Environmental Protection
Agency, the stat.e will ~-15.1 per-.
. cent of the· money. ·A,series of
appraisals of'the lanct done mQre
than a decade ago, se~ 'in, value at
$1.5 million to $5 million. • ·
. With SQme lawmakers grousing
about the cleanup _costs -es~i-
5B · -... visfo'h and office part tailed Pag&: .hlit$t on the sit.e. It. remains ~oned
·. for residential and office~mstitu-
. -tional uses. ·
wan1,: who died in 1996, W8$ sen-
tencecfto.2~ ~in ~prison
for alfowing a pnvate contra~r to
dump 'tne used'transformer oil,-
which was contaminated witfi pc:,Jy-,
cblorinat.ed ~ or PCBsl4'he .·
cancer-causing cbemicals, ~eel
by the (ederaf aov~rril'nent-tw9
deciloesago, ~used ~~te
electrical fri:nsformet'S.
ChQnge coming.
1
mat.ed by stat.e officials to to~ $24
million-the excess money is sore-
. ly needed, supporters of ~.treat-, ,. Pbl'.residents-ofthe1~ Creek
and·Ashley Forest subdivisions off
Lwtil~ aoad, the parcel provides.
a welcome wooded buffer. ·nut res-
idents of the rapidly grQ:wiqg •cor-
mentsay. · .
The state pl~ns to ask_ federal
agencie$ for $9 million to disinfect
contaminated soU a:t the 2'.5-acre
landfill. But North CarQlli\81officials
shouldn't count on 'the'C()ming' auc-
tion for the rederal.contribuf;ion; ~
EPA lawyer said , . ·
"We don't designate money from
. cost ~very, gene.rally, for [spe-
cific] cleanup;" Charles Mikalian
said. Rather, .the profits will be fun-
neled into the agency's general pot
of money for all Superfund cleanup
sit.es, be said.
The federal government tried
once before to peddle the surplus
land. The previous auction; held in
1990 in the midst of an economic
recession when the local real estat.e
market was slumping, attract.ed no
buyers. ·
Different climate
Thi's time, though, the govern-
. ment's auctioneer shouldn't have
any trouble :selling the land, which
is just a few miles from RTP, art exit
on Int.erstat.e 40 and RDU.
An open• house last week in .
' l I • t ~,.
· Durham drew 1() in(erested buyers,
including s¢veral,qq\-of-stat.e deve~-
opers, said Elaine Dilbeck, a realty,
spe~taJ_ist wi~ the ~~s regional
office in Atlanta. ·
"We have quite a bit of int.erest," .
.said Dilbeck, who will wield the auc-·
tioneer's microphone. .• i t ,1 ,. "Thmgs are starting to happen
out in that~ "said Duke~
a Raleigh appraiser. The activity
includes a.regional shopping mall, .
office buildings and residential
development planned on the 2,000-.
acre Airport Assemblage property
nearby in Wake County.
· B_oykin recently appraised the
property for federal officials, but
declined to reveal the appraised
value. Other brokers, though, &aid
property along the Page Road cor-
ridor typically sells for $20,000 to
$40,000 an acre. ·
Before the government foreclo-
sure, the transformer company's
president, Robert ('Buck'' Ward Jr.,
was developing a 250-home :subdi-,.
ner of s(n1,theastern I:lurba~
Couµtyknow that We,~lative'tran--·
quility is going to last onJy so long.
"Something's going to go in. We
know that," said Susan Bernacki,
president of th·e Ashley Forest
Homeowners Association. "We just
want to see some balance. EQough
large apartments are.already going
in. We'd like to see some more sin-
g1e:,family housing."
Others have reacted more vis-
cerally to tht:l pending sale.
Two large signs on Page and
Lumley roads announcing the auc-
tion have repeatedly been defaced,
Dilbeck said
With a couple of key numbers
painted over, unsuspecting com-
muters and nearby residents are
left with the impression that 2.8
acres -not62.8 acres -will be
sold May 1, rather than May 19.
Alan Scher logier mn be readied
at 956-2433 or azag~ndo.mm