Cleaning up the Raymark Superfund Site in Stratford, Connecticut

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Published October, 1999
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CBI Practitioners: 
Patrick Field

 

Since the fall of 1999, CBI has worked with the Town of Stratford, Connecticut, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) seeking to address the consequences of fifty years of the manufacturing of asbestos-lined brake shoes. Stratford, located just west of New Haven along the mouth of the Housatonic River, was once the home of Raymark, a manufacturer of brake parts for automobiles. Over the years, asbestos and other contaminants were dispersed throughout the Town in fill provided to small commercial businesses, residences, the Town, and for the filling of wetlands. The U.S. EPA and the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution are providing funding for this project.


Conflict Assessment
In the fall of 1999, the US EPA New England Region asked CBI and Greg Sobel of Environmental Mediation Services (EMS), to conduct a conflict assessment of the Raymark Superfund Site. Neighbors near a proposed site for consolidating waste from other parts of town raised strong concerns about EPA’s proposed remedial action for a particular site nearby called Shore Road. They were very concerned about noise, traffic, general disruption to the community, the potential health impacts of airborne asbestos, and lack of involvement in cleanup decision-making.

CBI and EMS completed the conflict assessment in early 2000. Shortly thereafter, the EPA agreed to reconsider its approach to the Shore Road cleanup, and the Town of Stratford agreed to convene a new community advisory committee facilitated by CBI and EMS.

 

Convening and Organizing the Citizen Committee
Since June of 2000, the Raymark Advisory Committee (RAC) has been meeting monthly. Its members include local businesses, concerned citizens and representatives of affected neighborhoods. The Town’s Health Department has played a crucial role in helping convene and advise the group. In its first six months, the RAC adopted groundrules, identified key objectives, reviewed the history of public health issues and site cleanup in Stratford, and focused on groundwater investigations. In the second six months of operation, the RAC reviewed numerous firms and selected from them a technical advisor to assist in independent technical review of documents and approaches to cleanup.

GeoInsight, Inc, of Londonderry, New Hampshire, was selected and has come to be a central component to the consensus building effort. GeoInsight provides independent advice to the RAC, reviews numerous technical documents, and works closely with the US EPA and CT DEP to raise, address, and resolve issues ranging from the definition of waste on site to the best way to calculate the volumes of waste on individual properties.

 

On-Going Facilitation
Since 2002, CBI has assisted the Committee and agencies in working through such issues as soil gas impacts on residences to the capping of a local boat club. In order to help align the Committee, the Town, and the agencies, as the final decision for cleanup of the site approaches, CBI assisted participants in developing shared objectives for cleanup. Because the placement of contamination fill across the town has placed enormous financial burdens on small businesses, through no fault of their own, the RAC and EPA have addressed numerous legal liability questions.

The RAC is currently developing interim cleanup alternatives that can get as many local properties cleaned up and out of Superfund as possible. Since Superfund nationally has extremely limited dollars, the RAC is seeking to find cost-efficient solutions within the remaining site-specific dollars available.

 

For more information on this case, please contact Managing Director Patrick Field.