OAKLAND, California – Calaveras County Board of Supervisors will decide today whether or not to spend an additional $20,000 to complete the environmental assessment of a nearby asbestos landfill. An environmental consulting firm is preparing a request to amend a conditional use permit for regulating the disposal of tires at the former asbestos mine site.

The environmental assessment is being completed by Lamphier-Gregory of Oakland. The new permit would allow storage of up to 46,300 tires at the site that was once an asbestos mine producing about 25,000 tons of asbestos per day.

The permit modifications are being sought to ‘address staff concerns by continuing to use the cellular structure in addition to mixing tire shreds with inert mill tailings’. Those mill tailings include waste asbestos, a hazardous mineral that causes cancer, including mesothelioma, a rare cancer that is only found in those who have been exposed to asbestos.

The mine was in operation from 1968 to 1987, and produced about 25,000 tons a day of chrysotile asbestos from serpentine rock. In 1987, in the face of growing concerns about the health hazards of asbestos, Calaveras supervisors approved a reclamation plan for the mine site. In 1990, the county issued a conditional use permit for the storage of asbestos waste at the old mine site. That permit was later amended to include the storage of tires.

Lamphier-Gregory was retained to do a full environmental assessment of the current impact of the site and make recommendations on increasing the amount of tires that may be stored at the site. The contract with Lamphier-Gregory was last amended in 2005, at which point the company believed it could complete the assessment expeditiously within a year. However, the company amended in 2005, the necessity for a response to the California Integrated Waste Management Board required more work than was expected.

The 2005 contract would have expired December 31, 2007. If the request before the supervisors is approved at tonight’s meeting, the contract would continue through the end of this year and will cost an additional $20,000, which will be charged to California Asbestos Monofill.

Because asbestos is a hazardous substance that causes serious health problems in humans, federal law requires that it must be disposed of in accordance with strict guidelines. Those guidelines are designed to reduce the possibility of releasing asbestos fibers into the air where people may breathe it. When asbestos is removed from structures in the course of renovation or demolition, it must be transported in closed and sealed containers to a landfill that has the capacity to handle and contain it.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 26th, 2008 at 2:03 pm and is filed under Asbestos Legislation, California. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.