The State of Pennsylvania is providing $3 million dollars to further efforts to bring a new life to an old industrial site.
The grant from the Pennsylvania Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program was announced Wednesday by State Representative Mark Longietti.
The money will be used by Winner Development to redevelop portions of the 58 acre site of the former Westinghouse Electric Sharon Transformer Plant on Sharon’s North Side.
The proposed remediation consists of creating a laboratory for researching and developing water treatment-related services dealing with acid mine drainage.
In addition, space is being revitalized to create an art business, as well as revitalizing manufacturing and warehousing areas.
Building transformers during WWII
The former Westinghouse Electric Sharon Transformer Plant is a 58-acre facility located in Mercer County, Pennsylvania. During its operation from 1922 to 1985, Westinghouse manufactured electrical transformers at the site. Between 1936 and 1976, Westinghouse used blends of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and trichlorobenzene in the manufacturing of some of the transformers.
Over the decades of operations at the plant, leakages and spills of the various materials resulted in contamination of the Site soils, the drainageways to the Shenango River, the sediments in the Shenango River, the riparian soils in the floodway of the Shenango River, and the ground water at, and downgradient of, the former plant.
The Westinghouse Electric Corporation purchased CBS in 1995 and became CBS Corporation in 1997.CBS was subsequently acquired by Viacom Inc. which reverted back to CBS Corporation in January 2006. Only a small portion of the property is still owned by CBS. The remaining portions are owned by other commercial enterprises including AK Steel Corporation and Winner Development LLC. The site was formally added to the National Priority List (NPL) list August 30, 1990, making it eligible for federal cleanup funds.