Senator Dan Debicella (R-21), Representative John Harkins (R-120), and Representative Larry Miller (R-122) announced that their proposed legislation to protect Connecticut citizens from any future possibility of having toxic waste placed at sites neighboring their homes was approved on Friday by the legislature’s Environment Committee.

Senator Debicella and Representative Miller are members of the Environment Committee. The proposed legislation, HB 5606, An Act Prohibiting The Disposal Or Storage Of Toxic Waste Near Residential Property, will now to the House of Representatives. Whether it actually comes up for a vote will be up to House Speaker Jim Amann and the Democratic leadership.

Specifically, the bill calls for prohibiting the storage or disposal of toxic waste, including asbestos-containing material, at sites that abut or adjoin residential property. The legislators introduced the bill in response to the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal to finish the ongoing Raymark clean-up by consolidating contaminated soil from about 20 sites in Stratford at one to three sites in the southern part of town. The EPA did recently announce its intent to reconsider that proposal.

“We had a very positive public hearing earlier this week, and I am delighted that the Environment Committee acted quickly to move this important bill to the next step in the legislative process. Now that the Environment Committee has acted, we hope that the legislature moves quickly to pass our bill and protect all Connecticut residents from the possibility that something like this could someday happen to them,” said Senator Debicella.

Representative Harkins, who testified at the committee meeting, said, “I am grateful to the Environment Committee for acting quickly, and will be urging my colleagues in the House to join me in voting for this important bill. We need a state law on the books to protect Stratford residents from the residential consolidation option for Raymark cleanup and to make sure that nothing similar can ever happen in any other Connecticut community.”