Pennsylvania environmental cleanup clears way for NS rail yard project

The State of Pennsylvania 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, the Intelligencer Journal reports. "

Essentially, we said
that it’s clean enough," said John Kreuger, environmental program manager
in the state Department of Environmental Protection’s south central 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 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 nine acres of the property, DEP sought
additional information from consultants about the project.

Cluck suggested then that
questions that 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.