The CT Post by By Richard Weizel

06/04/2009

STRATFORD -- State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said Thursday a Stratford man accused of illegally excavating toxic soil last month at a one-acre Raymark Superfund site on East Main Street could face "severe civil penalties" and possible criminal charges after the project potentially exposed a group of first-graders to dangerous airborne toxins.

Blumenthal won an emergency order from the courts May 21 to stop Joseph Marcell from digging up hazardous Raymark soil, including asbestos, lead and PCBs, using trucks and payloaders "in direct defiance of the state DEP."

The temporary court order, however, came two days after a first-grade class from Wilcoxson Elementary School walked by the site as state and federal work crews secured the site. Marcell's mother, Helen, owns the property at 340 East Main St., where Blumenthal is seeking a permanent court injunction against the digging, and also is conducting a criminal investigation in cooperation with the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Blumenthal said the emergency court order was sought to prevent poisonous materials from spreading to businesses and a residential neighborhood about 150 yards away. The Raymark Superfund site is a repository for 70 years worth of toxic pollution from a local auto-parts manufacturing plant. The waste was used as fill in residential, commercial and municipal areas across town before its toxic properties were widely known.

Aside from potential civil penalties "in the thousands of dollars," Marcell also faces potential criminal violations of state and federal regulations, Blumenthal said.

The civil and criminal penalties will "depend on how long he has been violating the law, where he placed the excavated soil, and what damages were incurred," said the attorney general. He said the state DEP and EPA are conducting separate investigations.

Blumenthal said Marcell could also face possible criminal contempt penalties if he "violates the court order we are pursuing. Criminal charges will also depend on how long he has been violating the law, where he placed the excavated soil, and the extent of the damages he caused."

Marcel, who declined comment two weeks ago, did not return calls Thursday.

"While it's bad enough that there was illegal excavation of known hazardous waste going on near East Main Street, it has come to light that an entire first-grade class of 20 pupils at Wilcoxson Elementary School was potentially exposed to airborne asbestos as they walked within yards of the site on a field trip May 19 where state Department of Environmental Protection crews were working to block it off from the public and stop the spread of contamination," said Tom Smith, co-founder and president of SaveStratford, a grassroots group working with the DEP and EPA on a permanent plan to remove and remediate Raymark waste at about 25 remaining properties in town.

"It is simply unacceptable that this happened and the town's response was even worse," Smith said. "Notifying the public four days after the potential release of one of the most hazardous substances on earth [airborne asbestos] is frankly too little, too late."

Health Director Lisa Pippa, however, said the site has been temporarily stabilized and that neither students or community residents were likely exposed to harmful airborne contaminants. She said a meeting with DEP and EPA officials has been scheduled at 6 p.m. June 23 in the Birdseye Municipal Complex.