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TESTS: BUILDING BURNED BY CITY OF MONTICELLO CONTAINED ASBESTOS

By Patty Wooten/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Wednesday, January 11, 2006 10:00 AM CST

MONTICELLO — Tests have confirmed that debris from an old gymnasium the city of Monticello burned in November contains asbestos.

Three of seven samples taken from the burn site contained asbestos, according to Monticello Mayor David Anderson.

One sample contained 15 percent asbestos, one contained 10 percent and another contained two percent, Anderson said.

More than one percent requires special handling by licensed abatement specialists and disposal at a Class 1 landfill, according to Lloyd Huntington, Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality enforcement administrator.

The city-owned structure was burned by the Monticello Fire Department on Nov. 10 as part of the city’s effort to get rid of unsightly and unsafe property, but the city failed to obtain an asbestos inspection or notify the ADEQ prior to burning the building.

Prior to demolition or burning, ADEQ requires the structure to be inspected for asbestos by a state certified inspector. If asbestos is identified, it must be safely removed prior to burning and ADEQ must be provided with a written notice of intent 10 days before demolition or burning.

“There’s no way an inspector would have found (the asbestos) before the burn because it was in the insulation on a pipe laying on the ground and there was no crawl space for an inspector to access it,” Anderson said. “It looked like at one time asbestos had been removed because the only place it was found was in the area that couldn’t be accessed.”

Sanctions for violating the disposal standards and regulations can be as much as $10,000 per violation per day with each day constituting a separate violation, according Huntington.

“The city’s cooperation will be a large factor in determining the penalties, if any,” Huntington said. “The main thing we’re concerned with right now is to get that site cleaned up.”

Asbestos fibers released to the air are considered a hazardous air pollutant by the Environmental Protection Agency. Various factors, including concentration, duration, and frequency of asbestos exposure, determine its health risk, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

Anderson said the city is currently getting estimates from licensed asbestos removal contractors.

“We don’t have any idea how much it will cost but timeliness is a greater factor than cost,” Anderson said, explaining that the city is likely to hire the contractor who can clean up the site the quickest even if it costs a little more.

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