Demolition project brings fines
What started out as a simple tear-down project has resulted in several fines for improper handling of hazardous materials, a spate of finger-pointing and possible asbestos exposure for workers and residents of a south Corvallis neighborhood.
Last June, veterinarians Stephen Callahan and Kristina Cox bought a rundown motel called the Travel Inn at 1562 S.W. Third St. as the site for a new animal hospital. They hired Pepper Construction of Philomath to demolish two of the motel buildings and arranged for the Corvallis Fire Department to burn the third structure in a training exercise.
But the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, acting on a tip from an anonymous caller, ordered a halt to the demolition in mid-July and launched an investigation of possible asbestos-handling violations.
Investigators determined there may have been as much as 1,000 square feet of asbestos-containing flooring and roofing material in the motel, and this week the state environmental watchdog announced it had levied $36,000 worth of fines in the case.
The DEQ found plenty of blame to go around:
• Callahan and Cox were jointly fined $21,000. Of that amount, $10,200 was for allowing a contractor who was not licensed for asbestos abatement to handle the demolition work. Another $10,800 was for openly accumulating asbestos-containing waste at the site.
• The Corvallis Fire Department was fined $7,200 for openly accumulating waste containing asbestos.
• Pepper Construction was fined $7,800 for conducting an asbestos-abatement project without being licensed for that work.
Cox and Callahan are appealing their penalty. Pepper Construction has already paid its fine, and the Corvallis Fire Department plans to pay up as well.
After DEQ determined there was asbestos on the site, Cox and Callahan hired a licensed specialist to complete the abatement work, taking precautions to ensure no asbestos fibers got into the atmosphere.
Preliminary work has begun on a new 10,000-square-foot structure to house the Willamette Veterinary Hospital and a 24-hour emergency vet clinic. Construction is scheduled to be finished in February, when Cox and Callahan plan to move their practice from its current location at 650 S.W. Third St.
Asbestos handling
What remains unresolved is just how much asbestos was present on the site — and how much risk the public may have been exposed to during last summer’s demolition.
“The thing with asbestos is that there is no known safe level,” said Les Carlough, who works in DEQ’s Portland enforcement office.
Asbestos fibers — once widely used in construction materials for their fire-resistant properties — can lodge in the lungs if inhaled. Once there, the tiny fibers can cause chronic breathing problems and potentially deadly cancers, according to the National Cancer Institute.
“If the fibers aren’t wetted, they can go far and wide,” Carlough said. “That’s why it’s so important that precautionary measures be taken in advance.”
Under environmental regulations enforced by DEQ, those precautions should have included wetting down the roofing material and vinyl floor tile that contained asbestos to keep stray fibers from getting into the air. The material should have been put into plastic bags for transport to a licensed disposal facility.
None of the asbestos-containing material should have been burned, Carlough said.
“Fire would have made it worse,” Carlough said. “It would have burned the vinyl and released the fibers.”
Responsibility disputed
Also unresolved is the question of just who is ultimately responsible for exposing the public to a potentially serious health risk — although there is no shortage of opinions on the matter.
“The owners are responsible for figuring out what is on their property,” Carlough said. “That’s their burden.”
But Greg Skillman, an attorney for Cox and Callahan, said his clients made a good-faith effort to do just that. Before they started to tear down the old motor court, he said, they hired Nova Consultants Inc. of Corona, Calif., to do an environmental assessment of the property.
A copy of that assessment was obtained by the Gazette-Times.
The Nova report notes that “the potential exists for (asbestos-containing materials) at the site” and cautions that asbestos could be present in roofing and other materials in the structure. But the report’s “findings and recommendations” section makes no mention of asbestos.
Skillman said the consulting firm had been put on notice that it might face legal action for not doing more to highlight the asbestos threat.
Skilling also called the $21,000 in fines levied against his clients “excessive” and said the veterinarians are being asked to shoulder too much of the blame.
“These people are innocent parties,” Skillman said. “They don’t know anything about asbestos.”
Skilling argued that city officials should have done more to ascertain whether asbestos was present at the Travel Inn before issuing a demolition permit or allowing the Fire Department to conduct a training burn.
“Those are the people with the expertise,” he said, “and we’re the people without expertise.”
‘Mistake’ acknowledged
Matthew Lavigne, who inspected the Travel Inn property for Nova Consultants, said the report adequately addressed the possibility of asbestos contamination and that the property owners would have been imprudent to rely solely on the recommendations section of the 26-page document.
“We basically indicated there were areas of the building that should be considered asbestos-containing until it could be tested,” Lavigne said. “They obviously disregarded our report. They just went their merry way.”
As for Pepper Construction, the original contractor on the demolition job, owner Bill Pepper declined to comment. His attorney, Bill Cohnstaedt, said Pepper recognized that he “made a mistake on this job” and decided that the best course of action was to pay the $7,800 fine.
Acting Fire Chief Roy Emory said his department erred by inadvertently following an outdated policy in agreeing to burn the motel building. But he also said the current procedures — adopted in 2004 and further revised since the Travel Inn incident — would have kept the department from agreeing to do a training burn there.
The new policy requires Fire Department personnel to check for a number of potential problems, from open gas lines to historic significance. It also requires a DEQ-approved inspector’s survey that certifies the structure is free of asbestos.
The latest revision requires the fire chief or operations chief to sign off on any training burns.
“If we would have followed our policy, we wouldn’t have burned the building,” Emory said.
But Emory also noted that a section of the environmental assessment faxed to the department by the building owner made no mention of asbestos risk.
Finally, he added that the lieutenant in charge of the training burn made the same assumption the property owners did — that having a demolition permit meant the building was free of hazardous material.
But Dan Carlson, the city’s development services manager, said that’s a false assumption.
“There is no legal basis for our department to deny a (demolition) permit based on failure to submit a clean asbestos report,” Carlson said. “We do not regulate asbestos removal.”
Carlson said that’s DEQ’s job — something his department tries to let people know through links on its Web site and by displaying brochures about asbestos abatement at the permit counter in City Hall.
Most asbestos-related illnesses result from repeated exposures over time, according to the National Cancer Institute. And if anyone actually inhaled asbestos fibers from the Travel Inn, it could be years — even decades — before any significant health effects show up.
But the greater the exposure, DEQ’s Carlough said, the greater the chance of harm.
“You can get some very dangerous diseases from very small amounts,” he said. “It’s a numbers game.”
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