Lincoln’s paper mill site won’t need emergency cleanup despite alleged arson fires there earlier this week, a federal official said Friday.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency workers found asbestos tiles and pipe insulation during inspections Friday in one of two buildings destroyed in Wednesday’s fires. Tests will determine if the toxins require “time-critical removal action” in spring 2018, said Dave Deegan, an EPA spokesman.
The fires, which destroyed a large warehouse and a shed on Wednesday, sparked fears of contamination. The site is so polluted with asbestos, dioxins, metals and Polychlorinated Biphenyls, or PCBs, that its cleanup will cost $20 million, town officials have said.
Lincoln applied for Superfund status for the site in March.
Deegan said in an email on Friday that firefighters who doused the blazes had “appropriate personal protective equipment in this situation.”
EPA and Maine Department of Environmental Protection workers will return to the Katahdin Avenue site on Saturday to continue air-quality tests.
The sampling will “ensure that airborne particles do not pose a threat to local populations,” Deegan said.
Lincoln Public Safety Director Dan Summers spoke to EPA workers on Friday.
“I think everybody is doing their due diligence to find out what the risks are to the citizens of Lincoln and to the environment,” Summers said.
Officials have expressed concerns that without cleanup, the site could pose a threat to some significant waterways. A stream runs through it between Mattanawcook Lake and the Penobscot River.
Prior to the fire, EPA had planned to do some cleanup work at the site next spring, Deegan said.
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