Spill-containment company coming to Starpointe

October 5, 2016

Barbara Miller
Observer Reporter

Keystone Containment Contractors of Imperial plans to purchase an eight-acre site at Starpointe business park, which the Washington County commissioners expect to approve Thursday.

Dan Reitz, executive director of the Washington County Council on Economic Development, said the company designs, makes, installs and maintains liners for spill containment and water retention ponds used by the natural gas and oil industry.

Plans for the Hanover Township business park include construction of a 30,000-square-foot headquarters, warehouse and shop. Parking and an outdoor service yard will be located behind its building.

“We look forward to partnering with the WCCED to grow our business at Starpointe,” said Ted Maloney, president and chief executive officer of Keystone Containment Contractors in a news release.

The firm employs 51, and if, after building the manufacturing facility, it adds another 30,000 square feet, it could employ another 30 people.

The company has been installing turnkey containment systems in the Marcellus and Utica natural gas fields since 2010, according to its website. It claims its pre-sprayed liner “provides a consistent thickness of impermeable material with the strongest seams that can be fabricated today” to protect the environment and public health from industrial and oil and natural gas extraction. It says its vacuum trucks operated 365 days a year.

When the sale of the property is completed, all but two lots at Starpointe will have been sold, Reitz told the commissioners. Despite that, county Solicitor J. Lynn DeHaven said, “There are hundreds of acres left.”

The discussion then focused on Shell Oil’s proposed ethane cracker plant in Beaver County. Although it is several years away from being constructed, Reitz noted that Starpointe is only 18 miles away on Route 18.

Reitz also told officials gathered for the agenda-setting meeting that Philadelphia-based Samuel and Son seafood purveyor that purchased land for a building a year ago has decided to stay in Wilkinsburg.

“We will have to approve whoever they sell it to,” Reitz said.