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The Raymark Superfund site during remediation.: Photo courtesy of the Town of StratfordA task force of government agencies and citizen groups is holding its first meeting Tuesday night in Stratford to discuss the best way to clean up toxic waste from the former Raymark factory.

After auto parts manufacturer Raymark Industries closed its doors in Stratford in 1989 it left behind asbestos, lead, PCBs and other toxins. In 1995 Raymark was named a federal Superfund clean-up site. The EPA has cleaned up the former factory, but dozens of contaminated sites remain.

A citizens group called Save Stratford.org wants the toxins removed from the town.  But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says consolidating them at one or more sites where Raymark originally disposed the waste makes the most sense. Jim Murphy of the U.S. E.P.A. says one of the goals of the new task force, which includes state, federal and citizens groups, is to get all of the information about the Raymark site on the table.

“We want to hear what the community concerns and ideas are  and we essentially hope that we can within a 90 day period reach some type of consensus on some short term clean up  efforts utilizing the funds that are currently available and then also come up with a longer term strategy.”

In addition to about two dozen properties that are part of the short-term clean up, there are also more than 40 acres of wetlands near the Housatonic River that contain toxic waste.