Raymark waste will not be consolidated next to Stratford houses, thanks to a new law passed by the General Assembly. Representative John Harkins and I wrote a bill that will ban consolidation of toxic materials next to residential neighborhoods, and it was passed with broad bipartisan support in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The bill effectively stops the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from consolidating twenty of the remaining Raymark sites into three Stratford locations next to residential neighborhoods. The EPA will now hopefully work with Stratford to find an alternative solution.

We now have 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. Our families will not be subject to tons of toxic dirt being placed next to Stratford houses. We have better alternatives for the Raymark waste—including removing it from town and capping it in place—that need to be further explored.

The history of the Raymark properties is well-known in Stratford. Raymark Industries operated for 70 years on East Main Street, making brakes, clutches, and other manufacturing parts. They used a system of lagoons around the area to dispose of waste—much of which seeped into the soil and contaminated it with various chemicals.

In the 1990’s, the EPA capped and remediated the main site (where Home Depot and Wal-Mart now stand), as well as many residential properties. However, there are still over 20 locations around Stratford that contain uncapped contaminated soil.

Last August, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed to consolidate the soil from these twenty sites into three sites next to houses in Stratford and cap them to prevent health risks. Their proposal was met with strong resistance from Stratford grassroots organizations, including SaveStratford, the Raymark Advisory Committee (RAC), and Stratford Action For The Environment (SAFE). Families understandably did not want thousands of trucks shipping tons of contaminated dirt around town, only to place them next to some families’ houses.

Our new law takes away residential consolidation as an option for Raymark waste, and similar waste around the state. Specifically, the legislation prohibits individuals and government agencies from permanently placing, depositing, disposing of, or storing more than 1,000 cubic yards of soil consisting of asbestos-containing material from one site to another site that abuts or adjoins residential property, and at a height of more than four feet above the existing grade of land without the approval of two-thirds of the legislative body of the municipality. This legislation, now on its way to Governor M. Jodi Rell’s desk, is to take effect on October 1st.

Representative Harkins and I worked with many other legislators to take action to take away residential consolidation as an option for the EPA. Representatives Terry Backer and Larry Miller were extremely supportive of our efforts. Representative Dick Roy (D-Milford) is the Chairman of the General Assembly’s Environment Committee, and was a co-sponsor of our bill. The team effort of Republicans and Democrats working together for Stratford has paid off for our families.

We now need to work with the EPA to find a workable solution to the remaining Raymark waste. Two acceptable alternatives exist—one is moving the toxic dirt out of town to an EPA safe site, the other is to “cap-in-place” the toxic site by placing layers of non-contaminated dirt on top of the asbestos and lead-contaminated soil. While some combination of these alternatives is ultimately financially viable, I believe everyone is committed to working with the EPA to come up with an alternative.

The new Raymark legislation is an example of how government should work. All of us, Democrat and Republican, are working together to protect our families and preserve our environment. I am thrilled to have been a part of passing this landmark legislation, and look forward to continuing to work to improve the quality of life for Stratford families.