Officials say a $23 million commitment from the Biden administration’s bipartisan infrastructure law will help complete the cleanup of Connecticut’s worst hazardous waste superfund site.
The EPA’s cleanup of the Raymark Industries site in Stratford began in 1995. That was shortly after the automotive brake factory plant shut down, leaving behind contaminated PCBs, asbestos, lead and copper.
Progress has been slow because the toxic waste was spread around the neighboring residential community.
The new federal money means the project may be completed in the next couple of years, said U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), chair of the Appropriations Committee.
“It's one of the largest projects on the EPA’s Superfund list, so it’s going to take time and careful consideration. But today we are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel,” said DeLauro, whose district includes the Stratford site.
“It's going to be kept covered and there is going to be a ball field that will be built here," said Janet McCabe, the deputy director of the EPA. "We’ll be monitoring the air quality here to make sure that the air is safe. And the waste would be capped in place to make sure that nobody will be exposed to it in the future."
The bipartisan infrastructure law also has $7 million for the cleanup of old industrial Brownfields sites in Waterbury and the Naugatuck Valley area of the state.
