Stratford: Raymark cleanup to start soon, EPA says
John Burgeson
1of8Junk and litter surround the old Raybestos Brakettes softball stadium on Frog Pond Ln., in Stratford in 2016. The Environmental Protection Agency plans a $90-million cleanup of the property.Ned Gerard / Hearst Connecticut Media fileShow MoreShow Less
2of8Remnants of the old Raybestos Brakettes softball stadium on Frog Pond Ln., in Stratford in 2016. The Environmental Protection Agency plans a $90-million cleanup of the property.Ned Gerard / Hearst Connecticut Media fileShow MoreShow Less
4of8The remains of an abandoned building that was part of a fire that broke out Sunday on the grounds of the former Raymark ball field on Frog Pond Rd., in 2016.Ned Gerard / Hearst Connecticut Media fileShow MoreShow Less
5of8This undated photo provided by the Environmental Protection Agency shows the Raymark property, in Stratford, Conn. prior to demolition in the 1990s.Contributed Photo / Contributed PhotoShow MoreShow Less
7of8EPA Regional Administrator Alexandra Dunn and State DEEP Commissioner Robert Klee announced Monday, May 7, 2018, that work would begin soon on cleaning up the last of the so-called Raymark sites in Stratford, Conn. They made the announcement on the softball field where the Raybestos Brakettes played from 1947 to 1988.John Burgeson / Hearst Connecticut MediaShow MoreShow Less
STRATFORD — Come mid-summer, work will begin on the last of the so-called Raymark waste cleanup, a project that's been talked about for more than a quarter century.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's regional administrator for New England, Alexandra Dunn, announced Monday that federal, state and local officials were very close to beginning cleanup work and that work will begin in earnest within three months. This, officials say, will eventually render harmless the last of the contaminated soil in town.
In this last phase, a $95 million project, Raybestos Memorial Field on Frog Pond Lane will become a repository for much the tainted soil that the brake and friction materials manufacturer deposited in several locations in town. This soil contains lead, asbestos and polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs.
"We now know that this soil contains toxic levels of chemicals, and it's a potential health hazard to unsuspecting residents and business owners," Dunn said, adding that a number of sites have already been cleaned up and capped — such as the large shopping plaza that now houses The Home Depot, Shop Rite and Wallmart. That project — where the Raybestos plant was situated — was completed in the mid-1990s. More Raymark soil was pulled from the Wooster Middle School playground in 1995.
It was then that these Raymark sites were classified as Superfund sites, something that Town Hall resisted at first, fearing that it would make for poor public relations. But now, town officials are looking forward to getting this work done so more property can be put back on the tax rolls.
"This is going to create a platform for future development," said DEEP Commissioner Robert Klee.
The EPA has split the project into nine "Operable Units," some containing several individual properties. There are "several thousand" cubic yards of tainted soil still out there.
"We are ushering in a new day and a new commitment to put the community first," Dunn said. "We will listen to the community — and the EPA will construct a barrier first, in July, around the ball field."
Dunn said that "every effort will be made" to reduce the project's impact on the homes that surround the old Memorial Field. A road will be built through the former Contract Plating Co. site on Longbrook Avenue — another, unrelated cleanup effort — so that the trucks carrying tainted dirt won't be lumbering over residential streets.
She said that the project also includes the rental of a nearby storefront that will serve as a source of information for residents.
After the fence/noise barrier is built, other prep work will follow. It's expected that the soil work proper will get underway in 2019, she said.
Officials say 52 percent of the worst material will be scooped up and removed to out-of-state hazardous waste disposal sites. The remaining 48 percent will be trucked to the former Raybestos Brakettes softball field on Frog Pond Road and capped over with asphalt.
The announcement was made at what used to be the Raybestos Memorial Field, also a dumping ground for tainted soil prior to the mid-1940s. Officials say that after the rest of the tainted soil is placed there, it'll be covered with plastic to reduce the effect of toxins on groundwater. Then it will be covered with clean soil and asphalt and the parcel will be used by the Dept. of Public Works.
"It'd hard to imagine now but I remember playing here under the lights as a teenager," said Mayor Laura Hoydick, also at Monday's press conference.
Dunn's announcement was made at the old Raybestos Brakettes softball field, which today is little more than a shrine to the useless. There's a red, corroding car, sheets of waterlogged particleboard, a crushed toboggan, a drawer from the Stratford Library's card file, several truck trailers, plastic furniture, buckets of unknown fluids and much more. A contractor that owned the ballfield for a time in the 1980s and 1990s used it for "storage," and it's thought that other individuals dumped items there, too.
Soil contaminants
Arsenic: In high doses, causes metabolic problems that can lead to death from organ failure.
Lead: A cumulative toxin that affects multiple body systems and is particularly harmful to young children.
PCBs: Shown to cause cancer in animals as well as a number of serious non-cancer health effects in animals, including: effects on the immune system, reproductive system, nervous system, endocrine system
Since 1988 the Brakettes have played at the Frank DeLuca Hall of Fame Field near the shuttered Avco Lycoming plant in the South End. Their season opener there is scheduled for June 2. The team is looking for a major sponsor now.
The announcement came as a relief to many, owing to fears that President Trump's rollback of environmental regulations and his planned EPA budget cuts would imperil the Raymark cleanup efforts. In February, the White House announced that the president is seeking to cut more than $2.5 billion from the annual budget of the Environmental Protection Agency — an overall reduction of more than 23 percent.
jburgeson@ctpost.com
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I'm a Connecticut native - I grew up in Bristol - and I'm a 1975 graduate of the University of Colorado. After stints as the news editor of KHAS in Hastings, Nebraska and the editor of the Windsor Journal, I began at the Post, which was then the Bridgeport Post, in 1979. Beats covered include science, technology, Stratford and Milford.