Quantico steam plant schedueled for demolition

It was mid-winter and the windows were left open to ventilate the boiler’s exhaust. Inside the boilers were roaring flames, but they provided little-to-no heat for the rest of the building. The coal that fed the machine filled the room with black dust. The stench of sulfur smothered the air.
This was not a picture-perfect work environment, but for the boiler plant manager, this was home.
Building 2012, the old steam plant that provided heat to mainside from 1928 to 2004, is in the works to be torn down. The building sits on the corner of Barnett Avenue and John Quick Road. It has been vacant for five years. It lays in the Marine Corps Air Facility clear zone, is deteriorating, too costly to renovate,  and will be demolished.
There are many Department of Defense employees who formerly worked at the old steam plant who are still here at Quantico. Lyttleton P. Weedon, the steam plant manager, is sad to see it go.
“It wasn’t the best place, but it never let me down,” Weedon said. “She’s been through a lot and she gave a lot. It was fun working with the people there because they were all characters. It just felt like home to me.”
For all its accolades, Weedon would be the first to admit it was a tough place to work.
“Early on it was the hardest,” said Weedon, who started working at the plant in 1974. “It wasn’t easy work unloading and loading the coal. We would start in the winter fully staffed — about 40 — and by the spring half would be gone — chased away by the cold. There was a terrible turnover.”
The staff wasn’t the only thing that changed at the steam plant.
“We seemed to always be changing the kind of fuel we had to feed the boilers,” Weedon said. “They used coal when it first started. Then in the ’50s they used coal and number-six oil, which ever was cheaper at the moment on the market. Then in ’83 we went to straight coal again. In ’95 we started using number-two oil and natural gas, which burned cleaner. By the time it shut down in ’04 it was all natural gas.”
Weedon explained that there was nothing wrong with the plant when it shut down in 2004.
“They started putting individual boilers in each building to save money,” Weedon said. “I hate to see the old girl go. It’s still a good building, but no one wants it.”
Though the steam plant provided many challenges and long days, Weedon wouldn’t trade the memories for anything.
“It was harder work then than it is now,” Weedon said. “We had camaraderie though. It’s kind of like boot camp — you wouldn’t do it again but you wouldn’t trade it for anything.“
As required by the National Environmental Policy Act, an Environmental Assessment was prepared to consider the potential environmental effects of the proposed project to demolish Building 2012 and the remaining steam lines in the Mainside Area of Quantico.
This proposed action is subject to Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. Building 2012 and the steam lines are located within the Quantico Marine Corps Base Historic District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Through consultation with the State Historic Preservation Officer, it has been determined that the project would have an dverse effect on the Quantico Marine Corps Base Historic District.
A Memorandum of Agreement between the Base and SHPO has been developed which includes terms for mitigation of the adverse effect. Building 2012 and the steam lines have been documented and an informational Web site will be developed. For more information on this project, contact NEPA Coordination Section at 703-432-6772.