Clapper, Patti, Schweizer and Mason

The clean-up process for the abandoned Raymark Facility in Stratford, Connecticut has been estimated at nearly $40 million.  That figure has so far confounded any attempt to clean up the site which is contaminated with all sorts of hazardous materials including asbestos, a known carcinogen that causes a fatal form of asbestos cancer called mesothelioma. 

However, local watchdogs are not content to let the problem slip into the realm of the forgotten.  They continue to pressure the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to further investigate the site and present any suggestions they can as how to rid the area of this colossal threat to public safety.

The Raymark plant manufactured brakes, clutch parts, and friction materials at the site between 1919 and 1989 when it finally closed its doors.  The amount of waste that has accumulated at the 34-acre site is mind-boggling.

Experts suggest that a process known as thermochemical conversion – which has been used successfully at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and a U.S. Department of Energy property in West Virginia – could be used to help eliminate the threat at the Connecticut site as well.  Grasping onto any hope of help, locals have pressured the EPA into considering using the process. 

Developed by Dale Timmons, a geochemist from Seattle, thermochemical conversion can eliminate the threat from asbestos and other organic compounds hazardous to man.  The EPA has reached out to Timmons to assess the feasibility of cleaning up the Superfund Site but the price tag staggered them.

Because the site is completely contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls, copper, and lead in addition to the chrysotile asbestos the price tag has grown to astronomical proportions.  In fact, Timmons suggested that it would cost upwards of $20 million just to build a system capable of handling the amount of hazards at the Raymark plant. 

Additionally, another $20 million would be required to mobilize and demobilize the system after the clean-up was complete.  That doesn’t include any incidental costs that might arise during the process.  Those costs are estimated at somewhere around $38,500 per day.

However, the EPA has not given up on the clean-up.  In fact, the agency has managed to appropriate $21 million just for the old Raymark plant – that leaves a lot to go.

In spite of the excitement concerning the potential cleanup, Timmons is skeptical as to whether or not the process will even work.  Much of the asbestos is in the form of asbestos brake pads and other similar materials.  Thermochemical conversion has never been used on such products and may not work at all.