The EPA and Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection will start work this year to clean up a contaminated former softball field in Stratford. It’s part of an EPA effort to spend nearly $80 million on brownfield restoration in Connecticut.
The field is behind the former Raymark automotive brake facility—and it was once home to a women’s softball team called the Raybestos Brakettes. Today it’s scattered with debris and graffiti-covered storage containers.
Alexandra Dunn with the EPA, says, “Yes, the property behind us has become an eyesore and a nuisance. But there are even more concerns that we need to be aware of, which are the health hazards lingering just below the surface.
Those include toxic levels of lead, asbestos, PCBs and other chemicals from the Raymark facility. Dunn said the EPA and DEEP considered treating the waste or removing it. But they decided to consolidate and cap it instead, then monitor it indefinitely.
