>>KATHY COSCO: They are, at best, eyesores -- often creating safety hazards and hindering
community development -- but a DEP program is helping turn these once thriving properties
back into useful community assets.
The DEP's Brent Kessinger has more...
>>NARRATION: Former commercial, industrial and mining sites -- once integral parts of
West Virginia's economic engine -- often create special challenges when it comes to redevelopment
-- >>PATTY HICKMAN: You'll see them mostly along
our big river valleys -- the Ohio River Valley, the Kanawha River, but we have them all over
the state -- from the northern panhandle, eastern panhandle down into the southern coal
fields and into the Charleston -- Huntington area.
>>NARRATION: With brownfield sites, real or suspected environmental contamination associated
with previous commercial activity -- some of it dating back 100 years or more -- can
scare off potential developers.
That's where the DEP's Office of Environmental Remediation and the Voluntary Remediation
Program come in.
>>PATTY HICKMAN: A lot of times for an old property like this that has contamination
concerns, people are afraid to invest their money and redevelop the property because they
don't know what kind of liability they are taking on, but by coming through the voluntary
remediation program, they actually receive liability relief for themselves and any future
owners or occupants of the site.
>>NARRATION: TS&T Pottery in Chester is one of those sites.
A former pottery and dinnerware manufacturer, the plant sat unused and in dilapidated condition
for nearly 30 years, causing problems for the community.
>>MARVIN SIX: It was fenced in but you had a lot of vandalism, had a lot of kids playing
around in it and it was a hazard situation.
There had been a few fires set in the site -- they weren't major but it gave us an example
of what could happen if something more severe would occur, either on the liability for the
owners or for the hazardous situation for the general public and we wanted to eliminate
that hazard.
>>NARRATION: Marvin Six is Director of the Business Development Corporation of the Northern
Panhandle.
BDC purchased the property and has successfully raised over one million dollars in grants
and low interest loans to take care of site demolition and preparation for redevelopment
and entered the site into the DEP's Voluntary Remediation Program.
The group has big plans for the site and is actively marketing it to potential developers.
>>MARVIN SIX: We incorporated the West Virginia University Landscape Architect department
and they put together a master plan for us that has multi-use functions on the site and
those range from light industrial to some housing to commercial and some recreational
facilities.
It's on the eight acre site, it seemed like a lot to be put on there but in scale it works
out real well because it has easy access into the community.
>>NARRATION: Down the river in Glen Dale,
seeing the potential in a nearly century old manufacturing site is what attracted Warren
Distribution to the voluntary remediation program.
>>PATTY HICKMAN: USEPA and DEP had discovered that there was some contamination in the groundwater
there that was a concern.
They did some investigation but in the meantime, Warren Distribution was looking for a place
to put their manufacturing facility.
So they came in, entered the voluntary remediation program while they were under construction
and they're using a two hundred fifty thousand square foot building.
They've built a number of tanks both inside the building and outside the building and
they pump products from barges to those tanks and then they blend them, remanufacture them
and put them into containers that are made there at the facility.
>>NARRATION: In just five years, Warren Distribution has expanded well beyond its original plan
to hire 30 to 40 workers.
More than 170 associates currently work at the facility.
The company has already invested $58 million dollars and hopes to continue to grow its
business in Glen Dale.
Besides the obvious benefits to the local economy, the company has generated more than
$4.8 million dollars in local and state tax revenue.
It's a similar story in Wheeling where this Lowe's Home Improvement Center anchors neighborhood
revitalization efforts in the central part of the city.
The 14 acre site is actually two adjoining brownfield projects that were once home to
a rail yard, steel foundry and a junk yard.
The $18.5 million dollar investment created 175 jobs and has encouraged additional investment
by surrounding property owners.
>>PATTY HICKMAN: The Lowe's-Wheeling project was one of the quickest projects we actually
completed and that was based on the fact that there had already been some assessment.
From start to finish, it was only about six months.
>>NARRATION: Finding new uses for these impacted properties takes vision -- seeing them as
an asset, a resource and something that can benefit a community for years to come.
In Cowen, I'm Brent Kessinger for Environment Matters.
>>KATHY COSCO: The DEP partners with the West Virginia Brownfields Assistance Centers to
promote economic development and environmental and public health protection through redevelopment
of brownfield sites.
For more information, please visit the West Virginia Brownfields Assistance Centers' website
at WV brownfields.org
We're back in a moment.