| FRIENDLY - Repairs on the soil recycling factory in Bens Run Industrial Park are expected to be completed in early December. According to Eric Ebert, marketing and business development official at the Clean Earth of West Virginia factory, the Tyler County factory bids on petroleum-contaminated soil. The soil is transported to the plant by truck or rail car. Then the soil is exposed to bioremediation, a process where bacteria eats the petroleum, or thermal desportion, a process that requires the soil to be heated in an oven. "Recycling soil is just like recycling anything else," Ebert said. "Soil is one of the easiest things to recycle. It's a shame that hundreds of thousands of tons of contaminated soil get dumped in landfills every year." The factory has bid on projects that require 4,000 to 6,000 tons of soil to be cleaned. The factory was closed seven years ago, said Nancy Roberts, assistant vice president of operations and financing for Clean Earth of West Virginia Inc. The factory was purchased by Clean Earth and re-opened in April. While the factory has done some de-contamination work, the focus has been on finishing repairs. Roberts said the location of the factory near Parkersburg, near Pittsburgh and close to areas in Ohio with high levels of contaminated soil was the reason the factory was chosen. The soil is analyzed daily to ensure contaminate levels are lowering. The factory can accept soil contaminated with petroleum, coal tars and manufactured gas plant materials. "It's tested to make sure we do the job before it leaves here," Roberts said. The thermal desportion heats the soil to 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit. This process oxidizes the soil. The bioremediation process takes longer, but the bacteria eat the petroleum and purify the soil. Eric Fitch, Ph.D., director of Environmental Science at Marietta College, said the methods used at the plant are among the best ways to clean soil. "Either of these techniques is going to preserve the quality of the soil while getting rid of the contaminants," Fitch said. Cleaning the soil is a valuable product, he said. After factories close, few businesses want to use the contaminated land, Fitch said. "New remediation techniques can now encourage people to come in and use cleaned-up sites," he said. "This is a great example of how doing the right thing by the environment is going to create jobs." The plant employs six full-time employees and five part-time employees. The number of full-time employees is expected to increase in January when the systems are running full time, said Ebert. Roberts said the soil will probably be sold to landfills to use as topsoil or as fill at construction sites. Ebert said anyone could have any amount of soil cleaned. A person has to contact the factory about the soil. The soil will undergo an analysis to verify the factory can remove the contaminants. "Then we'll determine if it's cheaper to use the bugs or thermal treatment," Ebert said. The factory can do the analysis. | 
