(PRWEB) August 07, 2014
Clariant Corporation received a certificate of recognition here today from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 4 for the company’s role in remediating and redeveloping a former Superfund site that it purchased in the 1980s. The 667-acre property, along the Catawba River, is being re-developed by Forsite Development, Inc. into ReVenture Park, an eco-industrial energy park.
"From day one, Clariant has been the perfect partner, and ReVenture would not have happened without their commitment and patience,“ said Tom McKittrick, president, Forsite Development, Inc. “I am hopeful other companies with follow their lead and work to ensure similar sites are repurposed."
North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory; Speaker of the State‘s House of Representatives Thom Tillis; and Franklin Hill, acting deputy director of the EPA Office of Superfund Remediation and Technology Innovation, participated.
Clariant Corp. invested more than $40 million in a multi-year effort to remediate environmental contamination resulting from decades of industrial use, said Ken Golder, president and CEO of Clariant Corporation, U.S. affiliate of Clariant AG. When Clariant ceased production at this site in 2005, the company envisioned it repurposed in the future to create further economic development for the community.
In accepting the certificate from EPA’s Franklin Hill, Golder praised ReVenture Park as an engine of economic development and job creation, as well as for its expansion of conservation areas.
Site projects at ReVenture Park include a large conservation easement, wildlife habitat projects, stream restoration, and a trail system connecting the regional Carolina Thread Trail across the site to the nearby U.S. National Whitewater Center, according to a U.S. EPA announcement. Clariant Corp. was recognized in 2012 by the Catawba Lands Conservancy for its role in designating a conservation easement at the site of more than 100 acres of ecologically valuable lands along Long Creek.
Golder said that Clariant Corp. and Forsite Development share a vision for “economic and environmentally sustainable reuse” of the land, and he underscored EPA’s statement that ReVenture Park “serves as a national model for innovative redevelopment.“