Eagle Manufacturing completes cleanup, paving way for growth

WELLSBURG, W.Va. — It’s the final move in a seven-year program aimed at helping both the environment and economy in Brooke County as Eagle Manufacturing has announced that it’s capped its final monitoring well.

A problem in the making since the 1930s finally solved, land once laden with chemicals now labeled with another “C”–clean.

Through working with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protections, several Eagle Manufacturing properties have received certificates of completion after a seven-year environmental remediation process.

“All of those properties now have certificates of completion and meet all of the requirements that they are clean properties, both at ground water and surface, as well as all air quality,” retired Eagle Manufacturing CEO Joe Eddy said.

The remediation, including an injection program and well capping, took place at Eagle’s 24th Street main plant, as well as at their plants on 12th and 19th streets and at their 22nd Street distribution center.

With a clean bill, Eddy said this could be a stepping stone in bringing industry to Wellsburg, much like the billion-dollar company that purchased Eagle in 2018.

“Any more development that we want to continue to do with Eagle on those properties we can do without having the scrutiny of the dep other than what the current laws and regulations are,” Eddy said.

But that economic development doesn’t end there. For Eddy, energy is the force driving Brooke County’s economy into the future.

“We’re right in the heart of coal and natural gas country here, and we have the benefit of being right in the center of the largest industrial customer base in the world,” Eddy said.

“There’s a lot of people in the world, not just in the United States, that are looking at our area very closely for expansion, not only AI and data centers, which is a great opportunity, but also by energy-intensive industries.”