Bucks President James Linksz
last Wednesday confirmed plans
to develop a “Green Jobs Academy”
within the Bridge Business
Center, a multimillion-dollar business
park for research and development
located on property
formerly used by chemical manufacturer,
Rohm and Haas.
Only in its infancy, the proposed
academy will focus on training
area contractors in various
“green” techniques, like installing
solar and geothermal energy systems,
performing energy efficiency
audits on buildings, and
consulting with architects and
contractors in the construction of
LEED-certified buildings, a ratings
system for green buildings.
The academy will be situated
within the Bridge Business Center,
a budding business park
housed in the renovated buildings
of the former Rohm & Haas
Chemical Plant at the corner of
Route 413 and Route 13 in Bristol.
The center is part of the Keystone
Innovation Zone, a program
that supports companies bringing
jobs and investment to the commonwealth
by offering them an
array of financial incentives.
Investors in the project will
have access to numerous subsidies
and incentives including a fiveyear
tapered property tax abatement,
subsidized loans for
machinery and equipment, a
saleable tax-credit of up to a
$500,000 on improvements, and a
grant of up to $5,000 with a potential
tax credit of $1,000 for
each new job created.
According to a press release
from the Bridge Business Center,
the center has already attracted a
number of companies to the Bristol
site, including the Pa. Biotechnology
Center, Nitric Bio-
Therapeutics,Inc., the Institute for
Hepatitis and Viral Research,
Bucks, Rohm & Haas, Behr
Process Corporation (Masco Co),
Sika AG, and Drexel University.
From within the Bridge Business
Center, the Bucks Green Jobs
Academy plans to work in concert
with other universities, as well as
local green companies like AE
Polysilicon, a producer of photovoltaic
cells based in Fairless
Hills, and Gamesa Corp., a Spanish
producer of wind-driven turbines
headquartered in
Langhorne.
The business center is located
on a separate 30-acre plot on the
northeast corner of the 800-acre
property belonging to the Rohm &
Haas chemical plant.
The presence of environmentally
conscious companies on the
business center site comes in stark
contrast to the heavy industrial
practices of Rohm & Haas, its previous
operators.
According to a Rohm & Haas
press release, in 1989 the company
entered into a consent order
with the Federal Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) to propose
“corrective measures” to
three landfill sites on the Bristol
property.
These landfills are not located
on the site of the Bridge Business
Center, but they are within the
800-acre site nearby.
The press release states that
chemicals found uncontained
within the landfill to be at levels
high enough to “pose a potential
chronic health effect in aquatic
life.”
The press release also stated that
risks to human health were miniscule,
with a one in 3 million
chance of developing a chronic
health problem.
In a 2009 assessment, the EPA deemed the
60-acre landfill to be successfully contained by the barrier walls and
“synthetic/soil cap” that Rohm & Haas completed in 1997. “Compliance monitoring,” the assessment says, “is on-going.”
Although the landfill issue has
been practically solved, the
sprawling 800-acre facility still
draws citations from the EPA, including
eight formal actions from
Oct. 2006 to April 2009 issued in
response to the leaching of high
levels of zinc into local water supplies,
a violation of the Clean
Water Act.
Linksz explained that the renovation
and reuse of the polluted
site would better serve the
county’s environment, because it
would redeem polluted land instead
of degrading a more pristine
sight by starting a brand new development.
It is still unclear, however, if or
when the larger Rohm & Hass site
will cease polluting.
Even though the plans for the
academy are still in the preliminary
stage, the school has already
received close to $1 million of
start-up money for the project
thanks to the legislative efforts of
U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy.