The Inter Royal Site was the location of a large (over 1,000,000 square feet) abandoned mill structure located in the center of Plainfield, Connecticut. Originally constructed as a textile mill in approximately 1906, Inter Royal manufactured office and hospital furniture from the mid-1950s until 1985. Since that time, the Site has been abandoned, except for a plastic recycling operation in a portion of the building in 1991/1992.
On Tuesday, April 26, 2005 a fire destroyed the northern third of the mill, which was comprised primarily of a three-story brick and timber structure. Other ancillary structures in this northern portion include the boiler room, smokestack, and water tower. The southern 2/3 of the Site includes a sprawling single-story mill structure, which was not damaged by the fire but is in an advanced state of decay and was partially demolished approximately five years ago. See previous polreps for additional background information.
As a result of the fire, potentially-asbestos-contaminated fire debris was deposited over an area measuring approximately five miles long by one-half mile wide. Based on funding limitations and the magnitude of the problem, DEP requested that EPA take over the cleanup of this debris field. Based on this request, discussions with local, state, and federal health agencies, and the presence of friable asbestos-containing material on residential properties, EPA’s Superfund Removal Program initiated an emergency removal action on the morning of Thursday, 28 April 2005.
EPA directed emergency response activities utilizing the Incident Command System with the support of DEP and local authorities.
Cleanup activities in the debris field area were completed as of May 12, 2005. Crews cleaned up debris on 681 affected residential properties as well as several agricultural properties. Crews also cleaned up debris from active railroad lines and fields and open spaces accessible to the public. Asbestos-containing debris was collected in a roll-off container and shipped off-site for disposal on May 26, 2005.
The ERRS contractor completed demolishing the unstable, fire-damaged portion of the mill (including the smokestack) on May 25, 2005, so that sampling crews could safely enter the building footprint area. Five 15-gallon wall-mounted transformers recovered during demolition activities have been staged and securely covered pending disposal. Sampling within the building footprint area was conducted by the START contractor, in coordination with the progress of the demolition activities, from May 19-25, 2005.
The incident command post in the town hall building has been dismantled and EPA's mobile command post was demobilized on May 26, 2005 and the incident command post in town hall was dismantled as of May 27, 2005.
The ERRS contractor will re-mobilize to the Site to ship the five transformers off-site for disposal, scheduled to occur during early June 2005. Final demobilization will occur at that time.
Once the results of EPA's sampling activities become available, EPA will make the data available to state and local authorities.
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