Nation IN BRIEF : WEST VIRGINIA : Toxic Soil Holds Up Waterway Project
A $210-million expansion of the Winfield Locks and Dam complex, the nation’s busiest inland locks and dam, has been delayed for more than a year because of chemical contamination at a former rail car facility. The site of the former ACF Industries rail car repair shop, on the Kanawha River at Eleanor, W. Va., is contaminated by pesticides and dioxin. Closed since 1986, it was ordered cleaned up by the state in 1989, when 110 drums of chemicals and 11,000 pounds of soil were removed. Army Corps of Engineers spokesman Steve Wright said the locks expansion, which was to be completed by September, 1995, cannot be done before 1997 because of leftover soil contamination at the rail car plant.
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