(The following story by Ad Crable appeared on the Intelligencer Journal website on June 2, 2010.)
LANCASTER, Pa. — The state has signed off on the final environmental cleanup of the former Lancaster Brickyard dump that’s destined to be the new location for Norfolk Southern’s rail yard.
“Essentially, we said that it’s clean enough,” said John Kreuger, environmental program manager in the state Department of Environmental Protection’s southcentral regional office.
Though it is not required by DEP, the approval provides Franklin & Marshall College and Lancaster General Hospital with protection from environmental liability. It was sought by Norfolk Southern as part of the deal with its partners in the project, including F&M.
“We think this is a major accomplishment, and we’ve reached another goal for the project,” said Keith Orris, F&M’s vice president for administrative services.
Orris said Wednesday that relocation of the rail yard to the 12-acre site in Manheim Township has been under way since April and should be completed in less than a year.
Even before that’s completed, the college and Lancaster General can begin developing the 30-acre property where the rail yard is now located.
F&M plans to build new athletic facilities and mixed commercial-use buildings along Harrisburg Avenue. That would help make room for expansion of educational facilities on the college’s main campus, Orris said.
He said that LGH is finalizing plans for “medical education and administrative uses” on the site.
The approval of the cleanup plan was met with complaints from the attorney for Community Activists Against Rail Road Transgressions, a group of residents mostly from the School Lane Hills and Barrcrest neighborhoods who oppose the rail yard relocation.
Still not satisfactorily resolved, said Harrisburg attorney William Cluck, are whether endangered bog turtles live in wetlands on the Manheim Township property and how the discovery of buried drums of hazardous waste were handled.
Cluck said Wednesday that his group has 30 days to appeal the DEP action to the state Environmental Hearing Board, but he would not say if an appeal would be filed.
Last month, after an April public hearing on the cleanup of 9 acres of the property, DEP sought additional information from consultants about the project.
Cluck suggested then that questions which were raised could sink the project.
DEP officials, however, said all conditions have been met.
Critics have focused on the possible presence of federally threatened bog turtles.
The area, once part of the vast Dillerville Swamp, historically was home to bog turtles — possibly the first ones ever discovered. Since there are wetlands on the rail yard relocation site, it stands to reason they could still be there, according to Cluck.
Since the April public hearing, DEP’s Kreuger said that different consultants handling the cleanup for F&M and LGH researched the latest version of the Pennsylvania Natural Diversity Inventory, and that it did not list the site as a likely home for bog turtles.
The inventory is the state’s official list of locations of native plants and animals.
Cluck also raised concerns that DEP staff said at the April hearing they never visited the cleanup site when workers found 30 buried drums.
Kreuger said further review showed that a DEP official visited the site the day after the drums were found.
Cluck said a summary of the final cleanup report was not written in plain language, as required, and that the public was not given adequate time to comment on it before DEP approved it.
From March 2009 to August 2009, nearly 105,000 tons of material and contaminated soil were removed from the site and taken to the county Frey Farm Landfill in Manor Township.
Environmental covenants on the property will preclude future use of the groundwater, DEP said.
The final cleanup report may be viewed at www.fandm.edu/railyard. Click on the “Act 2-Final Report” link on the left margin of the page.
F&M officials were unavailable for comment Wednesday.