Lock Haven Court Is Coming Down; Further Remediation at Old Karnish Site

WILLIAMSPORT – The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has announced an old apartment building will be coming down and a new one going up in Lock Haven’s hill district, a $2.4 million project part of the continuing cleanup of the long-gone Karnish Instruments on Third Avenue.

DEP said demolition of Lock Haven Court and related remediation will be done with funding from the state’s Hazardous Sites Cleanup Act (HSCA) fund will begin in October.

According to DEP, the next remediation phase will involve the construction of a new apartment building, which will be followed by demolition of the existing Lock Haven Court apartment building so that an isolated area of radium- contaminated soil can be removed.

“This important remediation of legacy contamination from the defunct Karnish Instruments plant has been ongoing since 2008,” DEP North-central Regional Director Marcus Kohl said. “The department is committed to ensuring that all current and future residents of Lock Haven Court will have a safe, environmentally secure place to live.”

The Lock Haven Court apartment building is adjacent to the former Karnish property where that company had manufactured and refurbished aircraft dials painted with radium-containing paint from the 1950s to the late 1970s.

DEP began the initial remediation in 2008, and later conducted an investigation of four adjacent properties that had also been impacted.

DEP said in 2011-12, all impacted soil outside the footprint of the apartment building and from the four other properties was excavated and disposed at a low-level radioactive waste facility in Idaho at a cost of about $5.5 million.

The department is working with the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development and property owner Northern Cambria Community Development Corporation (NCCDC) to insure tenants will be relocated in the most efficient manner possible.

A legal agreement between NCCDC and DEP will reimburse NCCDC for the purchase of property currently belonging to the Clinton County Housing Authority and allow for the construction of a new apartment building to house the tenants. A second agreement will reimburse NCCDC for construction costs of the new building. The tenants will then be relocated and DEP will proceed with the final remediation phase.