As part of cleanup activities at the site of the former Honesdale Manufactured Gas Plant, PP&L, Inc., will have one of the buildings demolished during the week of Dec. 7.

"The building, located on the former plant site at Church and Fifth streets in Honesdale, is in poor condition," said William J. Bergstresser, PP&L's Honesdale area community development director. "For safety reasons, we are going to have it taken down."

All of the debris generated by the building removal is nonhazardous, Bergstresser said. It will be transported by Grand Central Sanitation to its nearby Beach Lake transfer station for disposal locally.

"When the demolition is complete, we will temporarily restore the property by grading and filling," Bergstresser added. For safety reasons, a permanent fence will be placed along the river and paved driveway sides of the property. Final site restoration will be completed in the spring of 1999.

PP&L, Inc., is cleaning up the site as part of a voluntary agreement with the state Department of Environmental Protection to investigate and clean up manufactured gas plant locations that may have been contaminated by past operations of PP&L, Inc., or its predecessor companies.

In addition to the building demolition, PP&L, Inc., will remove a small amount of soil from the site that contains coal tar residue from past operation of the plant.

"This soil will be handled as a hazardous material and will be disposed of out of state in a licensed, approved landfill," Bergstresser said.

"Coal tar was a byproduct that was created when coal was heated to manufacture gas," he noted. "It's a thick, black, oily substance that looks and smells like driveway coating."

Coal tar is an ingredient in common products such as roofing pitch, dyes, oils, wood stains and dandruff shampoo. However, it may pose a risk to human health if ingested for a long period of time.

The demolition site will be surrounded by a temporary security fence, Bergstresser said. All work will be done during normal business hours, and someone representing PP&L, Inc., will be on-site at all times during the demolition and soil removal activities.

In order to expedite cleanup of the area, PP&L, Inc., purchased the gas plant site and an adjacent property in 1996 when the property was listed on the real estate market. Only the gas plant building is being demolished.

The gas plant operated from 1902 to 1957. Pennsylvania Power & Light Co., now known as PP&L, Inc., or its predecessors owned and operated the plant for about 23 years, from 1928 to 1951.

PP&L, Inc., under DEP oversight, is restoring the property to the state's Land Recycling and Environmental Remediation Standards (Act 2). These standards focus on returning the property to its best use, which is in line with PP&L's intention to sell the property for residential and/or commercial use, Bergstresser said.

PP&L, Inc., a subsidiary of PP&L Resources, Inc., generates electricity; provides electric delivery services to 1.2 million customers in eastern and central Pennsylvania; and trades or markets wholesale energy in the United States and Canada.