March 21, 2008, Fort Chaffee, Arkansas - The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has declined to declare a fire-ravaged site as a disaster area and provide funding for clean-up, even though the site is contaminated by asbestos.

Following a fire that devastated the area on January 29, 2008, the Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority applied to FEMA to have the side declared a federal disaster area. The fire burned over more than one hundred acres, and destroyed over 150 WWII-era buildings. Asbestos present on the site was also exposed, and now that asbestos needs to be cleaned up.

The problem is that the cost of clean-up is estimated at $4.6 million, and for local residents that’s just too much. Officials say that having to foot the bill for cleaning up the asbestos will cripple the local economy for years to come.

However, FEMA says the site doesn’t qualify as a disaster, and has refused to provide funding for clean-up.

The refusal was made despite the fact that the site is contaminated with asbestos at levels that might be dangerous to citizens who nearby.

The EPA says they tested the site and found that asbestos levels were too low to allow the site to qualify for funding from the EPA Superfund. Air tests performed by Environmental Enterprise Group of Russelville found airborne asbestos levels were less than 0.002 fibers per cubic centimeter, which is well under the level considered safe by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

However, when the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality tested the site they found much higher levels of contamination. ADEQ testing measured asbestos contamination at up to 65%. The Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Commission says the EPA will return in thirty days to re-test the site.

Meanwhile, town officials plan to appeal the FEMA decision, but that isn’t going to be easy either.

However, David Maxwell of the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management has said that the group’s chances of a successful appeal were very slim, because the site doesn’t meet FEMA guidelines. In addition, experts say that a successful appeal of the FEMA decision is unlikely due to the complexity of the conditions that allow sites to qualify for federal funding.

The biggest problem is that clean-up hasn’t yet started, and bureaucratic issues are preventing it from happening. While the various groups have discussed who should pay for the asbestos clean-up, recent heavy rains may have already made a bad situation worse by spreading the contamination even further via runoff of site debris.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 4th, 2008 at 4:34 pm and is filed under Arkansas, Asbestos Exposure, Jobsite Exposure. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. Responses are currently closed, but you trackback from your own site.