Parkville, Maryland – A Maryland man has pled guilty to conspiring to violate the Clean Air Act. The violation is in connection with the removal of asbestos containing materials from Collier’s former Woodville State Hospital.

The man involved is Charles Victoria, from Parkville, Maryland. The 49-year-old pled guilty in a Pittsburgh federal court.

The incident that the case centers on actually occurred almost ten years ago. During the incident, Charles Victoria supervised the removal of asbestos waste from the former hospital when it was decommissioned.

He had been hired in December 1999 by Industrial-Commercial Consulting International Inc. to serve as the main foreman in charge of asbestos removal for the Woodville State Hospital project.

However, several inspections conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Allegheny County Health Department found that the asbestos had not been properly contained or disposed of.

In fact, the EPA inspectors discovered that asbestos-containing insulation had been allowed to fall into a ravine, and had been sitting on the ground for almost a year. Even worse, some of the asbestos had fallen into a nearby creek, where run-off may have contaminated further areas down-stream of the site where the asbestos was dumped.

Despite the fact that Charles Victoria had been hired to oversee safe removal of asbestos from the facility, prosecutors claim that there were actually more problems with asbestos removal after he was hired.

Charles Victoria and Industrial-Commercial Consulting both received several citations for “dry” removal of asbestos, failure to properly contain asbestos waste, and improper disposal of asbestos waste.

Most states have strict regulations that dictate how asbestos should be removed and disposed of. In many states, for example, asbestos must be removed via a “wet” method that involves wetting asbestos before it is cut or removed to reduce the amount of dust that is generated.

In addition, asbestos waste must be properly sealed in containers that adhere to regulations, and the waste must also be disposed of properly at a disposal site that is licensed and equipped to handle asbestos waste.

For its involvement in the incident, Industrial-Commercial Consulting was fined $300,000 and sentence by a federal court judge to probation. The company had pled guilty to the charges in August 2006.

Charles Victoria faces a fine of up to $250,000, up to five years in prison, or both. Sentencing is scheduled for July 25.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 at 3:23 pm and is filed under Asbestos Abatement, Maryland. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. Responses are currently closed, but you trackback from your own site.