Brownfield May Have New Use
Covenant outlines site’s restrictions
Morgantown Dominion Post
8 April 2012
By Tracy Eddy
A land-use covenant approved by Monongalia County commissioners
may allow Star City to find a new use for property it hopes to
obtain from the county. Star City officials still want the former
Quality Glass property, though there are no definite plans for its
use.
Digging and drilling wouldn’t be permitted at the 3-acre site on
Van Voorhis Road — currently owned by the Monongalia County
Commission — because the land was recently remediated as part of a
state program that cleans brownfields.
Mayor Allen Sharp said the restrictions weren’t a surprise. “We
knew all this going in.”
Earlier this week, the County Commission approved a land-use
covenant between the commission and the state Department of
Environmental Protection (DEP).
The land-use covenant explains the restrictions put on the
property to protect the cleanup and remediation work that was
done. The Dominion Post obtained a copy.
The commission sent a copy of the document to Star City, but Sharp
said he hadn’t seen the agreement.
Excavation, drilling or other penetration of the land is not
permitted unless it is done by a contractor, who is qualified and
knowledgeable about releases and exposures to contaminants at the
site, according to the land-use covenant.
Also, the extraction of groundwater is also prohibited unless it’s
for monitoring or remediation purposes.
The site must be inspected at least twice a year to make sure it
still complies with the covenant, the document states.
Star City officials will review the document, Sharp said, and then
discuss the possibility of drawing up a deed so ownership of the
property could be transferred to the town.
Commissioner Asel Kennedy said the county wouldn’t charge Star
City for the land.
The former Quality Glass site isn’t in Star City’s municipal
limits — it’s about three or four miles away. Annexation wouldn’t
be necessary, as cities and towns can own property outside their
limits.
Sharp said the town could likely keep the land as a park and
parking area for a while, but that’s not why officials wanted the
land.
The property slopes down to the Monongahela River and a has a
gravel lot with about 16 parking spaces.
The cleanup at the Quality Glass site started in 2009. Soil
contaminated with metals and polyaromatic hydrocarbon (a heavier
type of petroleum that can contain benzene) was removed. The
remaining soil was capped with clay and covered with more soil.
Trash and other debris were also removed.
The remediation cost about $350,000. The majority of the cost was
covered by a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Brownfields
Cleanup grant, but the county contributed about $47,000.
“It’s a clean site now,” Kennedy said. “Before it was hazardous to
everyone who went through there.” Brownfields are abandoned or
inactive industrial or commercial sites.