Asbestos to Be Removed from Valley Forge National Park

January 30, 2007 - After 10 long years of negotiations, a plan to clean up an asbestos-contaminated waste dump at Valley Forge National Historical Park has finally been approved.

An article in the Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the project to clear 112 acres near the park’s Welcome Center will cost $11.6 million, with costs to be shared by the federal and state governments.

The area in question once bordered an asbestos manufacturing plant, which stood on the site until the mid 1970s, though manufacturing presence in that area goes back to the late 19th century. 

According to the article, 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 to a facility that is permitted to dispose of such wastes.” The area will then be filled in with clean topsoil, graded, seeded with native grasses, and planted with trees and shrubs, notes the article.

Andrew Hartzell, an attorney with the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), says that a portion of the financial responsibility will remain with Keene Corporation.  Keene, which is now part of Reinhold Industries, operated an asbestos-manufacturing facility on private land that was surrounded by Valley Forge State Park, according to a statement from the National Park Service. 

Hartzell notes that other contaminants have been discovered in the area as well, including lead, PCBs, and arsenic.  Some of that contamination is attributed to another company, Baldwin Ehret Magnesia Co., which was acquired by Keene in the 1960s, Hartzell said.

"I'm glad that we have an agreement on the remedy," said Hartzell, who’s been involved in the negotiations for many years. "That was not an easy resolution."