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EPA TO BEGIN WORK CLEANUP IN DANBURY, CT

Release Date: 03/18/2002
Contact Information: Alice Kaufman, EPA Community Affairs, (617) 918-1064

BOSTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today that it will begin a $400,000 cleanup next week at a former printed circuit boards plating shop in Danbury, Connecticut. When EPA and staff from the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (CTDEP), visited Custom Design, located at 46 South Street, last December they found more than 75 variously sized containers containing unidentified wastes abandoned at the site.

According to the EPA On Scene Coordinator, the containers range in size from 55 gallon drums to one-gallon pails. Portions of the interior concrete floors under the former plating vats are visibly contaminated with powders and sludge. Several of the vats contain unidentified liquids. EPA sampled materials in several of the containers and found them to be corrosive.

"We thank the CTDEP for the initial work they did to identify and prepare an inventory list of products and materials left at the site," said Robert W. Varney, regional administrator for EPA's New England office. Noting that the site is in a residential neighborhood Varney added, "We owe it to the residents to remove these drums containing hazardous materials and clean up this site quickly."

The Connecticut DEP requested EPA's help when the former owner was financially unable to complete a cleanup of the site.

EPA will sample and evaluate the materials stored on site, and any hazardous materials will be disposed of at an EPA-approved disposal facility.