CARIBOU, Maine – Residents and people driving near the defunct steam plant on Lower Lyndon Street in Caribou will soon notice more activity there.
In July, the Environmental Protection Agency began its $2 million cleanup of the steam plant by removing non-asbestos wastes, including over 60 acid batteries, waste drums that contained leftover solvents, fuels and acids; and mercury-laden switches from inside electrical panels of plant turbines.
That work will be ongoing until a licensed subcontractor begins removing asbestos, the most hazardous form of waste within the plant. A study from County Environmental Engineering found more than 11,000 feet of asbestos pipe insulation and 14,000 square feet of surface material containing asbestos.
Catherine Young, EPA on-site coordinator at the steam plant, said Wednesday that the EPA expects to sign a contract with an asbestos subcontractor next week. She declined to name the subcontractor because of the pending contract.
Young initially hoped to start the abatement earlier in August but the need to ensure that potential subcontractors were fully qualified for the work delayed the process slightly.
“They should be on sight within the next few weeks,” Young said.
Asbestos abatement should take three to six months, but could be halted this winter if temperatures end up freezing the water that subcontractors need access to during the process, Young said.
If that happens, the EPA and their subcontractor would return to the plant in spring 2025. The current six-foot-tall fence would remain on site to prevent trespassing.
Currently, a detour sign in front of the fence guides drivers past the steam plant on a dirt road to the boat launch, which remains open to the public.
During asbestos abatement, people should expect to see trucks taking out large, enclosed containers full of asbestos materials once a week, and swapping the full container for an empty one.
Those tractor trailer-sized containers will remain next to the steam plant, with workers using a process that allows them to fill the containers without opening a lid and risking asbestos release, Young said.
Air quality monitors will be on alert 24/7 to help ensure that no asbestos is released into the air, Young said.
Due to the enormity of the 12,288-square-foot steam plant, there will likely be some asbestos left over after the EPA’s cleanup there, Young said.
“I don’t want to give a number because we’ll know more towards the end [of the cleanup],” Young said.
Caribou is looking to apply for a federal Brownfields grant that would fund the remainder of the asbestos clean-up at the steam plant, said City Manager Penny Thompson.
The city has a separate Brownfields grant to remove hazardous waste from the adjacent diesel plant, and will be contracting with Caribou-based County Environmental Engineering.
“After the EPA de-mobilizes at the steam plant, some work at the diesel plant could begin, even this winter,” Thompson said.
