Local waste officials hope to convert contaminated land near a West Virginia DuPont plant into a recycling facility.
Herald-Mail Media reports that the Berkeley County Solid Waste Authority will express its interest in a recycling center to West Virginia environmental officials, who are currently accepting comments about plans for the Potomac River Works site in Falling Waters.
The plant, located near the border with Maryland, produced explosives for DuPont for more than four decades, including dynamite, nitroglycerine, smokeless powder, water-gel explosives and ammonia nitrate fuel oil explosives.
Explosive production ended in 1994, but the facility continues to make roof bolt grouting systems used in mining and construction.
The site is contaminated by nitrates, lead and volatile organic compounds such as methylene chloride and 1,2-Dichloroethane, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The state Department of Environmental Protection reportedly hopes to excavate soil, install caps and fencing and implement land and groundwater restrictions as part of its remediation plan for the site near the Potomac River.
Berkeley County officials said that portions of the 1,242-acre site could eventually be used for development but other parts would likely remain off-limits. They nonetheless hope to take advantage of that remaining area by building its long-sought recycling facility.
"We can take a bad piece of land and do a lot of good things with it," Clint Hogbin, chairman of the solid waste authority, told the paper.