Work will continue on 11 hazardous waste sites in Berks County after state lawmakers struck a last-minute deal to fund a statewide cleanup program Thursday.
The agreement gives the state Department of Environmental Protection $18 million in funding for cleanups through June and $40 million annually through 2011, state officials said.
Also, 130 DEP workers threatened with a furlough over the stalled legislative talks will stay on the job.
Gov. Ed Rendell is expected to sign the bill.
But lawmakers did not find a dedicated source of funding for cleanup projects, said David Maser, executive director for PennEnvironment.
That means every three or four years, lawmakers will revisit the issue of finding money for hazardous waste sites, Maser said.
“These sites are not going away,” he said. “The cleanup of these sites take decades.”
In Berks, the DEP was providing money and assistance for the cleanups, including some supervised by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
The Berks sites:
•Crossly Farm site in Hereford Township. Groundwater is contaminated with a known carcinogen commonly called TCE.
•Algonquin Chemical in Hamburg and Windsor Township. The DEP has been cleaning groundwater contaminated with TCE.
•The former Armorcast plant in Birdsboro. Fuel and oil at the plant contaminated groundwater.
•Berks Sand Pit in Longswamp Township. DEP and EPA continue to monitor groundwater that was contaminated with industrial solvents.
•Clements Landfill in Ontelaunee and Perry townships. The DEP is monitoring groundwater contamination.
•Cryo Chem Inc. in Douglass and Earl townships. The DEP will take over monitoring a treatment system in 2008.
•Five Locks Road in Perry Township. The DEP evaluated an area along the Schuylkill River where battery casings were buried.
•Monocacy Creek groundwater contamination in eastern Berks. The DEP is looking to investigate possible well-water contamination.
•Oreville Quarry in Longswamp Township. The DEP is maintaining residential wastewater treatment systems.
•Ryeland Road in Heidelberg Township. The DEP was paying for a portion of lead and arsenic cleanup in the soil.
•Topton well contamination. The DEP is paying to treat chemical contamination in several wells around Topton.
