The New River Gorge Regional Development Authority (NRGRDA) has awarded a contract to Greenbrier Environmental Group, Inc. to facilitate the cleanup of the old Silo Ice house property on Commercial Avenue in Hinton, announced Jina Belcher, executive director of NRGRDA.

Belcher said the City of Hinton has designed a multi-use redevelopment plan for the area that includes stores and shops, an amphitheater, and a water park. The three-story brick building housing the former Silo Icehouse was built in the 1920s and was long used as an ice storage/cold storage facility.

She added that the building has been closed for several years and is contaminated with heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The cleanup at the property will include the excavation of contaminated soils, which will be removed from the site and disposed of at a permitted landfill.

“Hinton leaders have done a wonderful job with this initiative,” said Belcher. “NRGRDA is honored to have a role in restoring a brownfields area to create jobs and new business development in Summers County.”

Based in Lewisburg, Greenbrier Environmental Group, Inc. also handles projects that require wetlands specialists, ecological assessment specialists, surveyors, and experts in computer modeling.

NRGRDA was awarded a U.S, Environmental Protection Agency Brownfields grant of $442,320 in 2020 to coordinate the safe restoration of the property for economic development.