Patricia A. Kowal, chairwoman of the local bike-path committee that has been working on the project for nearly five years, pledged yesterday to lobby the state to move forward with the rest of the project, while leaving the short section near the former W.R. Grace plant for later. There's absolutely no reason not to go on with the rest of it and do that part at the end. But we really hoped to see something this summer. The state Department of Environmental Protection and federal Environmental Protection Agency announced last week that testing at the former W.R. Grace plant site had uncovered asbestos in the soil and that further testing needed to be done. Results of the new round will not be available until August or September, they said.
Asbestos is a suspected carcinogen.
Officials from the two agencies plan to meet residents on July 11at 7 p.m. at the White Brook Middle School to discuss the situation. Used with permission.