Borough leaders, residents discuss clean-up status, process at NVF site
07/09/2025 07:41AM ● By Richard Gaw
By Richard L. Gaw
Staff Writer
The first meeting of the NVF Clean-Up Focus Group, formed by Kennett Square Mayor Matt Fetick and Kennett Borough Councilman Joel Sprick and held on July 1, brought nearly two dozen residents and their opinions and concerns regarding the on-going clean-up of the former NVF site in the borough that is being planned for development.
The 90-minute meeting, held at Borough Hall, also provided an overview of the site’s remediation process, the timelines for completion and a scenario of remaining approvals that will be made and by whom, before the development along West Mulberry Street will be given clearance to start construction.
The NVF site remediation and development – which is projected to include 246 townhomes and 48 affordable apartments – is being managed by Rockhopper, Catalyst City Development, the Delaware Valley Development Company and Lennar.
Fetick said the goal for the focus group sessions – more are being planned - will be to give residents and property owners the opportunity to take a “deep dive” into the NVF clean-up.
“It is paramount that our residents feel confident that the clean-up is what it needs to be,” he said. “This is not a presentation, but a talk. This is the first of multiple meetings for the folks who really want to dive in. This is designed to collaborate and get to a place where we begin to understand the details of the clean-up.”
Update on remediation progress
Fetick told residents that in a conference call that he had last week with members of EPA, he was informed that the primary contaminants remaining on the site are polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which are defined as highly toxic and carcinogenic chemical compounds, formerly used in industrial and consumer electronic products, and are likely to derive at the site from the time the National Vulcanized Fibre Company produced laminated plastic plates and sheets composed from material known as vulcanized fibre.
“There are two areas of concern: soils that have PCBs in them, and groundwater that has been leeched into [during remediation testing],” Fetick said. “As of today, the soils clean-up is complete as far as soils that will be removed from the site. There was a portion of soils that remain on site and are being stockpiled into one corner, and the remediation that has been removed by the DEP is to encapsulate [those soils].”
Fetick said that the groundwater wells have received 18 months of consistent ratings, and unless there is a change of results, the monitoring of the wells will be completed in the next six months.
“Numbers have been at or below the required remediation levels,” he said.
At the request of the residents at the session, Fetick will invite members of the DEP and the EPA to a future meeting – tentatively scheduled for later in the summer - to give a presentation sharing DEP’s requirements for soil and water remediation and the current status of the NVF site clean-up.
Resident talking points and concerns
A key component of the focus group will be to gather the questions and concerns of the residents, and much of the July 1 meeting pulled together a series of questions that Fetick said he will forward to the stakeholders who are monitoring the site’s clean-up. Broken down into several categories, they focused on soil and water contamination and potential concerns that may arise; the remediation process and its oversight; the safety of existing structures at the site; and records and transparency related to the site.
Some specific questions raised during the meeting that will be forwarded to site inspectors included:
How many tons of PCB-contaminated soil have been removed to date?
Where did they take the contaminated soil from and to?
What are the dates the soil was removed?
Was there testing at the baseball fields for PCBs?
Are the developers aware of the other brownfield and superfund sites?
Can we require soil testing during construction?
Has the concrete pad [located at the site] been tested?
What is the air quality impact from PCB disruption?
What is “capping,” how does it work, and which environmental agency is legislated to do it?
Will DEP and EPA approval protect the borough from lawsuits related to potential future sickness from the site?
Are there any risks from lead-based paint and soil disturbed near the water tower, located on the NVF site?
Will there be a disclosure statement provided to future owners and renters of the complex
As the meeting progressed, attendees expressed concern that the site has evolved into what one resident referred to as a “cancer cluster.” Fetick responded by reading from an email he recently wrote to an EPA official.
“These are residents who grew up across from the NVF site believe that it may have created a ‘cancer cluster’ while others believe that the developer may cheat their way through the [approval] process,” Fetick said, reading from the email. “To this point, we have only heard from the developer and the residents are skeptical.”
In his email, Fetick wrote that he would like to invite the official to give a presentation to residents the process of remediation, how the projects are overseen and how a site is determined to be suitable development.
“Hearing directly from the regulatory agencies would go a long way towards building trust among our community,” he read. “My goal is to provide our residents with the confidence that the DEP and the EPA have a process in place that ensures that these sites are developable and have been cleaned to the best of your availability and [that they] meet all regulations.”
Tyler McNeil of Catalyst City Development recently told the Chester County Press that the remediation project is on target for final approval.
“We submitted our revised clean-up plan to the EPA in January of 2003, so we’re now at what we believe is the final conversation about formalizing the final clean-up plan with the DEP and the EPA,” he said. “The approvals are separated by environmental and zoning, although they are very much connected. We’ve been running a dual track with the DEP and the EPA to finalize approvals from the environmental perspective, as well as simultaneously having formal submission of zoning with Kennett Borough.
“We’ve been meeting with the Planning Commission, who will hopefully make a recommendation to Borough Council, who will hopefully support the zoning regulations.”
What if the water tower comes down?
One resident expressed concern for the safety of the water tower on the site.
“The tower is critically injured and is ready to die,” he said. “We can hope that if it does fall, let’s hope that it falls in an easterly, westerly or northernly direction. If it falls in a southernly direction and there is a loaded train of tank cars going by, you know what you can do? You can bend over and kiss Kennett Square goodbye.”
Several of those in attendance expressed their skepticism that the clean-up of the site is following all of the rules, but Sprick assured the residents that the work is being done according to the highest standards of safety and regulations.
“There is a level of trust here,” he said. “I work with people who do this work. I have done this work. No one is out to pull one over on you. I promise you.”
McNeil said that Catalyst City Development is committed to having an active dialogue with stakeholders and residents about the site’s clean-up.
“We certainly recognize on a site like this that there are a lot of different stories and history and complexities,” he said. “[Remediation processes] like this take far longer than anyone wishes they would, but we’re finally at a point where we can communicate where we are and exactly where we are headed.”
Fetick said that he has several meetings scheduled with EPA and DEP officials and the site developer and informed those in attendance that the borough will make announcements of future NVF Clean-Up Focus Group sessions on its website and is considering creating mailer fliers for those who do not have online access. The borough will also be keeping residents aware of the clean-up process in its upcoming newsletter, which is scheduled to be mailed soon.
To learn more about the NVF site clean-up, fill out a survey and read remedial restoration reports of the site, visit www.kennettsq.org/_nvf
To contact Staff Writer Richard L. Gaw, email [email protected].
