Archive for the ‘California’ Category

Butte County, California - The California Environmental Protection Agency is busy this week, helping to clean up toxins left behind by fires in Ophir and Humboldt in Butte County, California. The CEPA is providing workers and covering all clean up costs.

According to Butte County director of general services Rich Hall, CEPA Department of Toxic Substances Control teams have been working in the areas which were burned in the fires which began on June 10, and have now almost completed the job.

The EPA work crews are removing toxins such as asbestos, paint, insecticides, and electronic waste, all of which were left behind when homes in the area burned.

Initially it was thought that the CEPA would have to remove and dispose of all potentially hazardous waste before homeowners could retrieve their possessions and ready their properties for rebuilding. And many homeowners were concerned that they may have to pay the costs themselves.

During a July 9 meeting of the Butte County Board of Supervisors these issues caused considerable consternation, particularly as several officials said that the state had made a point of saying the work needed to be done, but made no mention of helping to cover the costs.

After much frustration, the CEPA stepped up and offered a solution. For many that solution hasn’t come as quickly as they hoped, but now that the work has begun, it has moved ahead at a much more rapid pace.

With the CEPA’s help, the clean up is now free of charge for property owners, and they need only sign a participation form allowing workers on their property to clean up debris.

After all potentially hazardous material has been removed, trash bins will be moved into the area to allow workers to dispose of non-toxic debris. While this debris isn’t toxic, ash still presents a public health risk, and must be handled and disposed of carefully.

Oroville Supervisor Bill Connelly says the work is proceeding reasonably quickly, and says the CEPA’s offer to carry out the work and cover the costs is “the best you can do in a bad situation.”

With 324,000 jobs gone in the first five months of 2008, some are expecting the government to introduce legislation to help alleviate the problem and bolster the country’s economy. In places such as California, however, the suggestion has been made that legal reform would accomplish better results, with longer-lasting benefits.

University of California-Berkeley economist Lisa Kimmel examined six tort reforms which were adopted by other states between 1970 and 1997, and found that states which instituted the reforms experienced significant benefits.  In California, up to 152,000 jobs could be created if the state instituted similar reforms.

Currently, California ranks 34 out of 50 states in terms of the quality of its tort liability system, according to the “U.S. Tort Liability Index: 2008 Report.” California is known as a state with weak tort rules, high costs, and high litigation risks, and is particularly vulnerable when it comes to “abusive” asbestos-related lawsuits. The Civil Justice Association of California has noted that California is often targeted for asbestos-related suits.

The trickle-down problem is that new businesses tend to avoid setting up in states with weak tort rules, because they’re more vulnerable to litigation. That means fewer jobs and a weaker economy in states with weaker tort rules.

Texas is an excellent example of what can be accomplished by strengthening tort rules. A recent report released by economist M. Ray Perryman indicates that legal reforms in Texas which limited civil litigation have resulted in a big boost for the state’s economy.

In the report entitled “A Texas Turnaround: The Impact of Lawsuit Reform on Business Activity in the Lone Star Sate,” Perryman says that the boost is to the tune of $7.88 billion in annual spending, and almost 40,000 permanent jobs, in the city of San Antonio alone.

The study examined the impact of legislative measures that limit the damages that can be awarded in liability cases against Texas businesses. The liability limits include damages awarded in asbestos-related lawsuits as well as other civil damages suits.

The report notes some interesting facts about the relationship between civil litigation and the local economy.

For example, Perryman’s report says that between 1999 and 2003, medical insurance premiums doubled for many doctors in Texas-because of excessive litigation and excessively large jury awards. The result, said Perryman, was that many medical insurance carriers had begun to exit the market, and medical specialists-including neurosurgeons, orthopedic surgeons, and obstetricians-had begun leaving the state. As a result, the shortage of qualified health professionals throughout the state had become severe.
In 2003, however, Texas lawmakers adopted a constitutional amendment that capped ‘non-economic’ damages in medical cases to $750,000. The legislature also moved to reduce what Perryman called “abusive” asbestos and silica-related lawsuits.

As a result, Perryman says, the entire state has benefited from a substantial economic boost. The report says that medical insurance rates became more competitive as a direct result of the reforms, and that doctors and hospitals used their liability insurance savings to expand and improve healthcare services.

The lawsuit reform had the net result of creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs in Texas, and that around 8.5% of the state’s economic growth over the past decade is a direct result of the lawsuit reforms.

Proponents of similar tort reforms in California say that such reforms could not only mean thousands of new jobs, but could also improve the state’s healthcare system and make health insurance more affordable.

One South Bay school district has spent thousands cleaning up asbestos, but for one long-time school district maintenance worker, that’s not enough. George Gerber claims that asbestos is still a problem in several district schools.

Gerber works in maintenance at the Sweetwater Union High School District and has been employed there for seventeen years. Recently he reported to a San Diego news team that almost all of the schools in the district contain asbestos, and says he’s concerned about possible exposure risks for students and staff members.

Gerber also claims that he has repeatedly tried to get the school district to pay attention to his concerns, and has been repeatedly ignored or brushed off. Gerber says, “There are areas and rooms that I’ve been reporting for extended period of time that’s almost gone on in 2 years that haven’t been addressed.”

The news team’s recent report on the problem initiated action from National City Vice Mayor Frank Parra, who is concerned because three National City schools are part of the
Sweetwater Union High School District. Parra says of the issue, “We’re always an advocate for our citizens, our children.”

Parra wrote in a recent letter to school district Superintendent Dr. Jesus Gandara, “… it has been brought to our attention that public health concerns have been raised that relate to asbestos…” and asks that the school district “… educate us on the mitigation efforts of the District as well as the School Asbestos Management Plan.”

To deal with asbestos in schools, the EPA requires that all schools that contain asbestos maintain a management plan that details the location of asbestos, its condition, and the measures taken to prevent exposure. In schools where asbestos is present, parents and school employees can request to see a copy of the asbestos management plan at any time.

Since 2000, National City and South Bay has approved a total of eight million dollars’ worth of expenditure for cleaning up asbestos in schools. However, seventeen district schools still contain some asbestos.

One major problem is simply that asbestos remediation is expensive. Due to the health risks involved in asbestos exposure, there are several laws and requirements that control how asbestos-containing materials and buildings must be handled. These requirements tend to significantly increase the costs of any renovation or demolition involving asbestos.

Asbestos must be treated with extreme caution, and special procedures must be used when handling or removing the substance. This often means tight school budgets are stretched even further by the need to hire licensed asbestos contractors. Another issue is that disposal of asbestos-containing construction waste is up to three times more expensive than disposal of non-hazardous waste.

Jamestown, California - Jamestown, California officials have a plant to use soil from the Jamestown Mine site to help close the Jamestown Landfill.

The plan has received approval from the advisory Jamestown Area Planning Commission and will go before the Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors for final approval in June, but some residents are concerned about the possibility of asbestos contamination occurring during the soil switch.

The plan is part of the county’s efforts to avoid fines of up to $10,000 per day by meeting a state-mandated deadline to close the old Jamestown Landfill site as soon as possible. In order to avoid paying hefty fines the work has to be started by July 1 and completed by December 31, 2008.

To be able to close the landfill, the plan is to remove 41,500 cubic yards of soil from the Jamestown Mine site, which is owned by the county.

The mine is just three miles away from the landfill, and Tuolumne County Geographic Information Systems coordinator Larry Beil says using the soil from the mine could save as much as $300,000 on the costs of soil and transporting it to the landfill. The soil will be taken from piles of soil that were removed from the mine site before the mining began.

Deputy County Administrator Daniel Richardson believes it’s good for taxpayers, but Jamestown resident Joan Gorsuch is worried about using soil from the mine due to the possibility of some type of contamination occurring.

Her main concern is that asbestos may be released into the air. Asbestos is naturally present in the soil at the mine site. The substance is present in a large amount of the earth’s crust in very low concentrations, but there are asbestos deposits present in many locations where the concentration is much higher.

Asbestos is dangerous when fibers become airborne, as they can then be inhaled into the lungs. Over time, asbestos embedded in the lungs can cause chronic lung conditions and a type of asbestos cancer called mesothelioma.

Daniel Richardson says that workers will take precautions to prevent the release of large amounts of dust into the air, just as would occur in any type of construction project. In addition, he says, the work will only be carried out during the day on weekdays.

The work is planned to start as soon as approval is obtained. The project will be completed at a cost of close to $6 million, which includes the cost of previous failed measures taken to close the dump site.

Boulder, Colorado - Residents of the Boulder apartment complex that burned in a fire early on Monday morning won’t be able to retrieve personal belongings for several more days. According to the Boulder Fire Department, the discovery of asbestos in the building means it’s too dangerous for them to enter.

On Tuesday, authorities learned that the results of air samples taken from the burned apartment complex indicated high levels of airborne asbestos are present in the building.

Boulder Fire Marshall Dave Lowrey says the results of the tests aren’t surprising, as a property manager at the scene told firefighting crews that he thought the building contained asbestos.

Fire fighters quelled the blaze quickly-within around twenty minutes-but despite the small amount of damage done to the building, all the units had to be evacuated so that the air could be tested.

During the decades of asbestos use in the twentieth century the substance was often used as a fire proofing and flame retardant material and was added to many different types of construction materials up until the mid 1980s. However, inhalation of asbestos fibers can cause various forms of asbestos cancer and other serious diseases, causing health and safety issues that prevent former residents of the Boulder complex from retrieving their possessions.

The hazards of asbestos made it necessary for firefighters to protect themselves from exposure while fighting the blaze. During a fire, asbestos fibers can easily become airborne as they can be spread around by high-pressure water blasts.

Fire Marshall Lowrey says that work crews will have to clean up the areas that are contaminated with asbestos, and run more air quality tests before the building can be considered safe enough to allow residents back inside. Initially only six units had been tested, but now that airborne asbestos has been discovered, all of the units must be checked for contamination.

Lowrey says that officials hope that samples taken from the undamaged units will come back negative. Some tenants are concerned that they may never be able to retrieve their personal possessions if airborne asbestos is discovered in their apartments. However, Lowrey said most tenants will be able to retrieve all of their possessions, and tenants should eventually be able to return to their apartments permanently.

The clean-up work is expected to take several days. Residents may be able to enter the building to retrieve their belongings as early as Friday May 16, as long as test results indicate that it’s safe for them to do so.

Sausalito, California ‘ Sausalito officials were forced to temporarily shut down a construction project situated near the Bay Model, after locals became concerned about asbestos exposure and dust created at the site.

The construction project is a $7 million rehabilitation of an old South Pacific Division Laboratory. The US Department of Veterans will convert the old site into a new research center.

The site was once the Marinship Ship Yard, which was was placed with the War Assets Administration in 1946 and converted to a geotechnical testing laboratory in 1950. Around ten years after the laboratory closed in 1997 ownership was transferred to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Part of the work has involved asbestos abatement, and over the weekend contractors dressed in protective clothing began removing asbestos siding from the building.

During the course of the word wind began blowing dust from the construction site into nearby homes and boats. Concerned residents called police and firefighters to the scene, and the work was ordered to be stopped. Police Chief Scott Paulin said there was dust in the air and a layer of dust on nearby boats, and noted that arriving police cars also became covered in a dust layer.

On Monday May 5, city officials called the Bay Area Air Quality Management District to ask for the work site to be reviewed.

An inspector said that the work complied with the necessary building regulations and also said that the asbestos-containing siding was not being cut, broken, or crushed, so asbestos was not being released into the air. In addition, the inspector said it wouldn’t be possible to determine what was in the dust that was released during the weekend work.

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District will continue monitoring the site. Work may resume as early as Tuesday May 6.

Veterans Affairs spokesperson Judi Cheary said that all proper procedures were being followed at the construction site, but Sausalito Planning Director Jeremy Graves said that even if the dust was harmless, locals should still have been warned.

Before the site was cleaned, a study of groundwater and soil had shown concentrations of arsenic and polychlorinated biphenyls in addition to asbestos. The site should be safe post-cleanup, however.

The site construction will take two years to complete. Once the research center is open the VA plans to study post-traumatic stress disorder, HIV, liver disease, and other conditions.

California – The Environmental Protection Agency has completed a study about the asbestos exposure risk for people involved in recreational activities at the Clear Creek Management Area in central California. The risk assessment study has found that there is an increased long-term cancer risk for people carrying out certain activities in the area. The increased cancer risk is due to the presence of asbestos.

Most of the CCMA is managed by the Federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The area is used by campers, hikers, hunters, off-highway vehicle users, and others. Around 35,000 people visit the site every year. Both the EPA and the BLM have been issuing warnings about the asbestos risk since the early 1990s.

The EPA’s soil sampling in several areas at the CCMA site has found that there is asbestos present in soil in some areas. EPA Toxicologist Daniel Stralka said that “Higher dust-generating activities produce higher exposures and, therefore, higher risks.”

Asbestos levels measured in CCMA breathing zones are in the range that is seen in more industrial environments, and Stralka says these levels of asbestos are cause for concern.

Stralka says that reducing or eliminating activities that generate dust at the CCMA site will reduce asbestos exposure and reduce long-term cancer risks.

The CCMA is home to the largest natural deposit of asbestos in the United States. The CCMA itself spans over 75,000 acres, and includes a 31,000 acre natural asbestos deposit. The Atlas Asbestos Mine Superfund Site is also located here.

The EPA have estimated that lifetime risks for developing cancer are far above the range that the agency considered acceptable.

The study was carried out during 2004 and 2005. Several air samples were collected while EPA employees and contractors participated in recreational activities that are popular for CCMA visitors. Activities included hiking, camping, sleeping in a tent, and riding off-road vehicles.

According to the EPA study, activities such as motorcycling, ATV, and SUV use are those most likely to disturb large amounts of asbestos dust, and these activities are responsible for the highest amounts of asbestos exposure.

The EPA study also showed that during these types of activities children are generally exposure to more asbestos dust than adults.

As a result of the study, approximately 31,000 acres of the CCMA have been closed for all public uses.

Rick Cooper, BLM’s Hollister field manager, said, “Based on EPA’s results, we believe a temporary closure of most of the CCMA is in the public interest and we ask for the public’s cooperation. With the closure in place, we will immediately move on with developing a long-term resource management plan for the area with the public’s full involvement.”

Berkeley, California - Demolition is planned for a historic building at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, but the presence of asbestos in the building will complicate matters.

The building in question is a domed building that houses an outdated particle accelerator, a machine that enables scientists to study subatomic particles. The machine, known as the Bevatron, has been used in Nobel Prize-winning research. Two physicists, Emilio Segrè and Owen Chamberlain, won the prize for physics in 1959, after discovering a subatomic particle called an antiproton in 1955. Three other research projects involving the machine have led to Nobel Prize-winning results.

Despite its illustrious past, the Bevatron is now an outdated piece of equipment, and the building it is housed in is deteriorating. According to Department of Energy spokesperson Lauren Martinez, the building is a safety hazard that’s becoming too expensive to maintain. The building is leaking, and doesn’t meet current building or earthquake-safety codes.

On Wednesday April 16, the DOE announced results of an environmental impact assessment carried out for the proposed demolition of the building, and gave the project the go-ahead, saying that environmental impact would not be significant.

Demolition work may begin as early as June, with an estimated completion date of 2011. A cost estimate puts the total at $72 million.

One significant reason for the expense of the project is the enormous amount of hazardous material the building contains. The cement walls around the accelerator were built to shield scientists from radiation while the machine was operating, and now the walls themselves are slightly radioactive.

In addition, the laboratory is expected to contain large amounts of asbestos, and possible lead as well.

One estimate says that the amount of waste present in the building could require as many as 4,700 truck loads, of radioactive waste, asbestos materials, lead, and other hazardous substances.

Some Berkeley residents aren’t happy about the proposed demolition, partly because they believe the demolition would endanger the community more than leaving the building intact.

In addition, many believe that the building is a local icon that should be preserved. The Berkeley City Council agrees, somewhat-it gave the building historic landmark status in 2007, but didn’t go so far as to forbid the demolition.

Laura Martinez says that the DOE believes the demolition can be completed without endangering the public, because the radioactive material emits only very low levels of radioactivity.

California-based asbestos awareness group The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) filed suit against CBS Corp and several toy retailers last week, claiming that the toy-making company had sold toys containing asbestos.

The item in question is a toy crime-scene based on the CBS television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. In November of 2007, the ADAO announced they had sponsored tests on these and other toys and household goods. Several of the items tested, including the toy crime-scene kits, were found to contain asbestos.

Long-term exposure to asbestos is known to cause an asbestos-related disease called asbestosis. Even small amounts of exposure can potentially cause lung cancer, and mesothelioma, an aggressive type of asbestos cancer that develops in the lining of the lungs.

According to the lawsuit, filed in the LA Superior Court, the lab tests showed that the fingerprint dusting powder in the toy kits contained “substantial quantities of tremolite asbestos…one of the most lethal forms of asbestos.”

The manufacturer of the toys, Planet Toys Inc, had removed the toy crime-scene kits from the market late in 2007, after the ADAO made their asbestos claims public in a press release issued late November. Planet Toys Inc said it had conducted multiple tests on the toys but had not discovered any asbestos.

Planet Toys Inc said that some of the kits had been manufactured in China. Millions of toys, recalled last year, which had been sourced from China, had been found to contain hazards such as small magnets or lead paint. Planet Toys Inc issued a “stop sale” on all CSI fingerprint kits “until further information can be ascertained as to the discrepancy between…respective test findings.”

The ADAO claims that the defendants failed to warm consumers that the kits were contaminated with asbestos, a known hazardous material. Such warnings are required by state law. The ADAO wants a court order to stop the kits being sold unless they carry the state-required warning. The organization wants companies to allow consumers to return the kits and obtain a full refund, pay for asbestos testing of returned kits, and pay for medical treatment if it becomes necessary. ADAO also believes that civil penalties are required.

The lawsuits were filed by Public Justice on behalf of ADAO. Victoria Ni, lead Public Justice attorney, said “…this powder has been marketed and sold to thousands of children who are told to spread it around and blow off the excess. It’s a shame that we’ve had to resort to litigation to force these companies to do what they should have done in the first place to protect the American public.”

A spokesperson for the CBS company’s consumer products division said that CBS had ended its licensing agreement for the toy crime scene kits with Planet Toys Inc.

San Andreas, California - The chief building inspector of Calaveras County may have cost the county hundreds of thousands of dollars due to shoddy or inappropriate building practices.

Documents released by the Calaveras County council relate to the firing of Ray Waller, former chief building inspector. The documents allege that Waller negligently exposed people to asbestos by allowing unsafe demolition of a county building.

Other allegations include that Waller signed off on defective buildings, and told plan-checking firms and office subordinates that Calaveras County did not have to comply with certain state building codes.

Those actions, which Walker was allegedly fired for, may cost the county hundreds of thousands of dollars in construction overruns and lawsuit settlements.

Ray Waller has denied any wrong-doing, saying that “I don’t think the county can release these documents for the good of the public or the press. I think this was a vengeful, spiteful act by them…” Waller says he may take legal action against the county for releasing the documents, claiming that information in the documents was distorted or fabricated by Community Development Agency Director Stephanie Moreno.

Board of Supervisors Chairman Steve Wilensky said he is proud that the county did the right thing in making the documents public, and providing the public with an explanation of the incidents that led to Waller being fired.

The documents number some 1,300 pages, with allegations that Waller allowed certain property owners and developers to adopt illegal practices such as unsafe sewage disposal and constructing substandard building foundations. Some incidents date back more than a decade.

The asbestos-related incident Waller was allegedly responsible for occurred in 2003. Waller allegedly failed to comply with asbestos inspection requirements, which required that Waller have the Building and Planning Department’s San Andreas offices surveyed for asbestos before beginning planned remodeling activities.

Waller failed to have the survey carried out. During the remodeling, workers discovered asbestos-containing materials. After the discovery, an employee in the building turned on the air-conditioning system, not realizing that asbestos had been discovered. The air-conditioning system spread asbestos dust throughout the building, including in the city’s Air Pollution Control District offices.

Donna Koplen, co-owner of the contracting firm carrying out the remodeling, said that she and the workers had no ideal the building contained asbestos.

That incident cost the county nearly $500,000 for asbestos removal, $60,000 in fines paid to the Environmental Protection Agency, and more money on legal fees for subsequent lawsuits.

Waller claimed that he was unaware there was a legal requirement for an asbestos survey, and further claimed that even if he had known, it was not his responsibility to check for asbestos.