Firm buys 101 acres above former Marjol Battery web site for housing

Two Midvalley businessmen need to rework over 100 acres of undeveloped land into housing and greenspace above the previous, now-remediated Marjol Battery web site in Throop.

Pine Tree Properties 1 LLC bought the land final month from Arizona-based Gould Electronics Inc. for $505,000, in keeping with a property transaction recorded June 29. The 101-acre property begins off Delaware and Franko Streets, northeast of the previous battery processing plant. Marjol Battery shut down greater than 40 years in the past, changing into a federal Superfund web site attributable to lead contamination.

Marjol Battery encompassed about 44 acres southwest of Pine Tree’s property from 1963 till 1982. Pine Tree’s property shouldn’t be a part of the Marjol web site.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund program concluded an intensive remediation challenge in 2010, which remained in compliance throughout the latest evaluation a decade later.

Pine Tree Properties organized with the Pennsylvania Department of State on May 14 utilizing the deal with 859 Enterprise St., Dickson City, which corresponds with the situation of Kriger Pipeline Inc. Alfred Kriger Jr. and Jason Iyoob are listed because the organizers of the corporate. Kriger’s nephew, Jim Marzolino, who’s the president of Kriger Construction Inc., has emerged as a central determine within the rush to develop knowledge facilities and energy crops regionally. Companies tied to Marzolino and his building agency suggest 4 knowledge facilities and three energy crops in Dickson City, in addition to an information middle and energy plant in Archbald.

Kriger additionally not too long ago partnered with one other Midvalley businessman, Ron Augelli, the proprietor of Talk Shirty to Me on Enterprise Street, to develop a youth sports activities advanced alongside the Lackawanna River within the northeast nook of Dickson City. The two spent $900,000 for the 17-acre property.

In Throop, Pine Tree Properties has mentioned growing the land for townhouses, Zoning Officer Andy Hegedus mentioned in a textual content.

“Definitely no data center,” he mentioned.

The land is essentially zoned for low-density residential housing, with a band of environmental conservation land alongside the Lackawanna River.

Iyoob, a Jessup native and Archbald resident who operates Throop-based J’s Painting and Rock Hard Coatings, mentioned their plans aren’t set in stone but, however they need to develop a mixture of housing, inexperienced house and strolling trails. He talked about each townhouses and single-family houses.

“Our goal is to transform the long-vacant property there into a safe, high-quality residential community that the people of Throop could be proud of, rather than have a black eye on them,” he mentioned.

They selected the title Pine Tree due to the big variety of pine bushes on the land, and so they need to protect 20 to 30 acres of inexperienced house, Iyoob mentioned.

With a surge in knowledge middle proposals regionally, Iyoob pressured that they haven’t even given knowledge facilities a thought. Throop’s zoning additionally prohibits them on the location.

“I’m just not in that world, and I don’t hope to be,” he mentioned. “I just think housing benefits the local area so much more and so much longer.”

Developing subsequent to the Marjol web site is their greatest hurdle, he mentioned. He and Kriger paid for unbiased soil testing all through the property, together with close to the Marjol web site.

“Everything’s good — there was no concern,” he mentioned. “Our biggest thing is we just want it to be safe.”

Gould Electronics, which bought the Marjol plant in 1980 and shut it down two years later, purchased the 101-acre parcel in 1999. Throop beforehand supposed to purchase the property from Gould a decade in the past for upscale houses and strolling trails, however council subsequently deserted these plans.

Marjol used its plant to crush batteries, drain the battery acid, take away the lead, and dump the battery casings into strip mining pits, a drainage method and within the central portion of the power, according to the EPA. After eradicating the lead, Marjol melted it down into ingots, processing roughly 12,000 to 14,000 kilos of lead per day.

The operation resulted in about 372,000 cubic yards of crushed battery casings and contaminated soil. As a Superfund web site, it underwent an intensive remediation effort involving consolidating all the waste right into a roughly 10-acre on-site landfill, which it then encased with a cement combination, in keeping with the EPA.

The EPA performed a long-term stewardship evaluation in 2020 that decided the location was in compliance, with no main disturbance of the landfill cap or regulated fill space.

Iyoob doesn’t have a timeline but, however he hopes to maneuver rapidly, probably beginning in late winter or early spring.

“I just think it’s going to be such a benefit for the area,” he mentioned.