Wednesday, July 23, 2003
The land is along the Shenango River and has little commercial value.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
WHEATLAND, Pa. -- The borough has created a conservation authority to take ownership of a former industrial waste dump and turn it into a public passive recreation area.
Mayor Thomas Stanton, the driving force behind the effort, is chairman of the incorporated five-member Wheatland Conservation Authority.
The plan is to take ownership of a former 42-acre industrial waste disposal site off Church Street along the Shenango River and put in hiking trails and perhaps other pedestrian amenities, Stanton said.
He's been working on the project for a couple of years and initially wanted the borough to take ownership of the property.
However, borough officials were reluctant to accept long-term responsibility for the land, particularly as it had been cited as a hazardous waste site by the state, which ordered a cleanup of the property in 1998.
The fear of some long-term liability for further cleanup made borough officials reluctant to accept ownership, so they opted to create an authority to take over the site instead, Stanton said.
Little commercial value
The site has been cleaned up and has little or no commercial value because it is in the Shenango River flood plain and no one can build on it, he said.
Leaving it in a natural state and using it for passive recreation is the best use for the land, he said.
The mayor said he would like to see a walking trail developed around the perimeter of the property, which is bounded on two sides by the Shenango River. There is also a need for an access road through the middle of the site.
Some fencing may be required, but once those initial projects are in place, the authority will determine what other amenities would be appropriate, Stanton said.
He is still hopeful that students from the Farrell Area School District, of which Wheatland is a part, can get involved in designing and building a nature walk there.
School officials have expressed interest in the idea in the past, noting it could be linked with ecological study programs along the river.
"The site has between one-half and one mile of river frontage. I think it will be a real interesting trail," Stanton said.
There is other land along the river nearby that is owned by some industrial companies that probably has no commercial value either, Stanton said, adding that the authority might be interested in taking ownership of that property as well at some point.
Chemical buried
About 10 acres were used for industrial waste disposal between 1958 and 1970, and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection said soil and water tests showed the presence of polychlorinated biphenyls, arsenic, lead, zinc, cadmium and other heavy metals, making it a hazardous waste site.
The state directed the companies responsible for disposing of those materials to clean it up, and the job was completed at a cost of about $1.6 million.
The contaminants weren't hauled away but were buried under several feet of soil on 10 acres right on site. The responsible companies are also charged with monitoring the site for 30 years to make sure contaminants remain contained.
The DEP has been supportive of Stanton's plan, as have those who may, or may not, own the land.
It was owned by the late Alvin Taylor, who sold it to Wheatland Tube (now the Maneely-Wheatland Partnership) in 1976. However, Wheatland Tube never made all the payments and went to court in 1989 to rescind the sales agreement.
Today, neither Wheatland Tube nor the Taylor estate claims title to the land, but both are willing to allow the authority to take ownership in exchange for forgiveness of back taxes, Stanton said.
That debt now amounts to $26,830, according to the Mercer County Tax Claim Bureau.
Stanton said that Mercer County, the Farrell Area School Board and Wheatland Borough have all agreed to forgive their portions of those taxes, clearing the way for the authority to get the land.