Archive for the ‘Maryland’ Category

The Environmental Protection Agency has filed a complaint against a company that it believes intends to scrap a liner that contains large amounts of asbestos and PCBs.

The company is Global Shipping LLC, based in Cumberland, Maryland. The EPA believes that the company has plans to scrap the SS Oceanic, a 682-foot liner, at a port in Gujarat, India.

The complaint was filed by the EPA in San Francisco, and was subsequently denied by Global Shipping. The EPA complaint imposes a fine of $32,500 per day.

The SS Oceanic was built in 1951 and reportedly carries 250 tons of asbestos, and 210 tons of PCBs within its framework. Both of these materials were widely used in ship-building prior to the late 1970s. Both materials are known human carcinogens, and asbestos exposure can also cause chronic lung conditions, including asbestosis.

Many environmental organizations are concerned about the possibility environmental and health effects of the dismantling of ships such as the SS Oceanic, not only because workers may be exposed to large amounts of the contaminants, but also because these toxic chemicals can be released in large amounts into soil and groundwater.

Dismantling and scrapping of ships is often done in Bangladesh, India, and China.

Founder and President of Global Shipping, Dr. Anil Sharmer, told an Indian newspaper that the SS Oceanic will not be scrapped in India, but is actually intended to be sold to buyers in Dubai or Macau. However, Sharmer said he could not confirm the current location of the ship.

The EPA, and a non-profit environmental group known as Basel Action Network, believes that the SS Oceanic is bound for a port called Alang in Gujarat, where older ships are often scrapped for their valuable steel.

However, according to Rich Vaille, the EPA’s Pacific Southwestern Region Associate Director for Waste Program Enforcement, federal law prohibits companies from exporting PCBs in any form, including in ships that are being sent overseas for scrapping.

According to the federal Toxic Substances Control Act, says Vaille, companies that illegally export PCB waste in this way are circumventing U.S. requirements for safe and proper disposal of the waste.

Another EPA spokesperson, Dean Higuchi, said that the agency wants the ship to be cleaned of asbestos and PCBs before being scrapped.

In response to the EPA’s complaint, Global Shipping says that it did not have to notify the EPA before moving the ship, and also that the EPA did not ask the company what it planned to do with the ship before filing its complaint.

Jim Puckett, director of the Basel Action Network, says that workers in the Alang port who are involved in scrapping the ships are exposed to extreme hazards, and don’t have the knowledge or equipment needed to safety work on the ships. Puckett also pointed to a 2006 government survey of Alang shipyard workers that indicated one in six of the workers had developed asbestosis symptoms.

Baltimore, Maryland - Earlier this week, a Child Welfare Services building in Baltimore was reported to have an asbestos problem that might have exposed up to 350 state employees, as well as countless numbers of children who had visited the building.

Currently around 350 Maryland Department of Social Services employees are working in the building, which is on lease to the state.

According to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, over the weekend, outside maintenance contractors working at the building found suspected asbestos on pipes, and reported the presence of “active asbestos”. The workers alerted the Maryland Occupational Safety and Health Administration to the potential danger on Monday 28 April.

City officials have said the allegations are not true, and have chalked the claims of asbestos up to an act of retaliation carried out by a contractor who was fired.

Interim Director of the Baltimore City Department of Social Services Brian Wilbon said “The allegation is by a disgruntled worker.” Wilbon also said there had been no positive identification of asbestos made anywhere in or outside the building. “There were several inspections by the EPA and local inspectors, and nothing has been identified as asbestos.”

A meeting was held after news of the alleged discovery was released, at which Wilbon reassured staff of the building that there was no danger in continuing to work there.

A letter issued by contractor A&E Mechanical Services said that none of its employees had made any claims of asbestos discovery. Company President Jay Austin wrote that the allegations might have been related to “a disgruntled employee and ex-partner of A&E Mechanical which were terminated during the course of this job.”

Employees have been complaining about dangerous conditions in the building since last summer, when a complaint was filed with the Maryland Occupational Safety and Health Administration about water leaks and rodent infestations. The MOSH issued an extermination order but union officials say the agency didn’t continue with regular inspections as promised.

About the alleged asbestos discovery, Wilbon says there were no contractors working at the building over the weekend, and also that the building has been inspected two separate times over the past year, and asbestos was not found on either occasion. According to Wilbon the results of both of those inspections were presented to workers, and he would not hesitate to remove staff from the building if he believed that it was not safe to work in.

Baltimore, Maryland – A Child Welfare Services building at 1510 Guilford St in Baltimore may have an asbestos problem that exposed up to 350 state employees, as well as countless numbers of children who have visited the building.

According to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, over the weekend, outside maintenance contractors working at the building found suspected asbestos on pipes. The workers alerted the Maryland Occupational Safety and Health Administration to the potential danger on Monday 28 April.

Asbestos is known to cause more than one type of cancer, as well as other serious and chronic health conditions.

In general, long-term or heavy exposure increased the likelihood of developing an asbestos-related disease, but cancers can potentially develop after relatively small amounts of exposure. However, because asbestos-related cancers take anywhere from two to five decades to develop, it’s not possible to ascertain whether a risk is present based on whether people have recently gotten sick.

Union spokesperson Joe Lawrence said there was supposed to be a meeting about the issue, but it was first postponed twice, and then eventually cancelled. Lawrence says it’s been difficult to get any information about the incident.

Employees have apparently been complaining about dangerous conditions in the building for a long time. Last summer, employees filed a complaint with the Maryland Occupational Safety and Health Administration about water leaks and rodent infestations.

The MOSH issued an extermination order but according to union officials, didn’t continue with regular inspections as promised.

Joe Lawrence says that the building has a history of problems, and the union isn’t satisfied that the MOSH is taking all of its concerns seriously.

Brian Wilbon, Deputy Secretary for Operations at the Department of Human Resources, says that there were no contractors working at the building over the past weekend. In addition, says Wilbon, the building has been inspected two separate times over the past year, and asbestos was not found on either occasion.

Wilbon said that the results of both of those inspections were presented to workers at meetings held during the year, and also says he would not hesitate to remove staff from the building if he believed that there was any danger present.

Currently around 350 Maryland Department of Social Services employees are working in the building, which is on lease to the state.

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.

BALTIMORE, Maryland - A Baltimore firm that specializes in “green” concrete technologies is getting a boost from W.R. Grace & Co., the chemical giant that went into bankruptcy over asbestos-related lawsuits in 2001.

Grace has made a deal with Ceratech which gives it exclusive rights to market Ceratech’s manufactured concrete technology and products. Ceratech was founded in 2001. The firm uses a special technology to create fast-setting concrete using a waste produced by coal-fired power plants called fly ash.

Andrew Bonham, president of Grace Construction Products, said in a news release that the deal with Ceratech is “the latest step in expanding our portfolio of green materials for the construction industry”.

Grace has been operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and reorganization since 2001. The chemical giant was facing asbestos-related liabilities that could have totaled in the billions of dollars. Earlier this month, Grace reached an agreement with the EPA to pay a record $250 million to cover costs related to cleaning up asbestos spill at a Montana vermiculite mine once owned by the company.

That mine in Libby, Montana supplied over 90% of the vermiculite used in the United States for several decades. The vermiculite mined there was contaminated with asbestos, a carcinogen and air pollutant that causes mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer that has no other known causes. It was distributed as Zonolite, an attic insulation aimed at the consumer market, and as a gardening product. The Libby mine was closed in 1994. In the years since its closing, the EPA has spent millions to clean up asbestos at the mine and in the surrounding community.

There have been over 1,200 reported diagnoses of asbestos related health conditions, including mesothelioma, in residents of the Libby area. The rate of lung cancer, asbestos cancer,  mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases is monumentally higher than the rate for those diseases in the general population.

Grace is also facing asbestos lawsuits from thousands of others who were exposed to asbestos through the mining, manufacture, distribution and use of Grace products. Attorneys for Grace have stated that the company intends to fight the lawsuits aggressively, and have already fired their first shots in a motion asking a judge to set aside as ‘worthless’ thousands of asbestos claims against the company.

Grace is currently positioning itself to emerge from bankruptcy, and awaiting approval of its reorganization plan by a bankruptcy court judge.

Morgantown, Maryland – Work at Mirant’s Morgantown Generating Plant in Charles County was halted last week due to concerns over possible asbestos disturbance and the question of whether an exposure risk is present at the site.

The work involves the installation of a Selective Catalytic Reduction system, which is being used to control levels of pollution emitted at the plant. The SCR system captures nitrous oxide pollutants from the plant’s emissions and prevents them from being released into the environment. Mirant, which owns three coal-burning plans in Maryland, was fined a total of $175,000 this month for violating emission limits.

The asbestos disturbance occurred last Tuesday. The asbestos was located in the insulation of an industrial fan that blows emissions out of the plant’s stacks. The area where the asbestos was located had previously been marked and had been fitted with a barrier. However, a contract worker broke through the barrier and disturbed the asbestos.

Following the disturbance the contract workers were evacuated and a third-party asbestos removal contractor was brought to the plant the following day to clean up the site.

Asbestos, commonly used in construction materials between the 1940s and 1980s, was used in power generation plants because the fibrous mineral substance provides excellent thermal insulation, and is highly heat and chemical resistant.

Asbestos, however, is also a toxin that is known to cause major respiratory diseases such as asbestosis and mesothelioma, a type of cancer that is treatment-resistant and almost 100% fatal.

Mirant spokesperson Misty Allen has said that when asbestos testing and analysis was carried out at the Mirant site, “all the testing results came back favorable and well below any limits that would have triggered concern.” The Occupational Safety and Health Administration safe limit for asbestos is 0.1 fibers per cubic centimeter of air.

Despite this, some of the two hundred contract workers at the site said they wanted more information about the asbestos disturbance incident.

One Kentucky-based contract worker said that workers had told supervisors on two separate occasions that the asbestos barrier had been disturbed. Another said that workers had been told the air tested positive for asbestos, but nobody had been told how severe the situation really was, or when they would be going back to work on the site.

Spokesperson Misty Allen has said that Mirant will review the procedures followed during and after the asbestos disturbance to ensure proper protocols were followed.

Rhonda Wardlaw, a spokesperson for the Maryland Occupational Safety and Health division, says that an official complaint has been filed in relation to the incident.

Batimore, Maryland - Baltimore’s Curtis Bay, once a radioactive thorium extraction site in the 1950s, is now a contaminated site. Curtis Bay is in line for a clean-up, and the cost is estimated at around $100 million.

W.R. Grace has agreed to pay 40% of the cost, and will contribute an estimated $41 million according to the terms of the settlement agreement. The government has agreed to cover the remaining 60% of the clean-up costs.

W.R. Grace had been employed by the federal government in 1956 and 1957, using the company’s Curtis Bay site to extract thorium from monazite ore. Radiological tests carried out in the 1980s indicate that several spots at the site have significant levels of radiation, but the danger to the public is minimal.

The clean-up work will be carried out over the next five years. However, the plan must first be approved by Delaware’s Bankruptcy Court, where the former mining company’s bankruptcy reorganization is being supervised. The hearing is scheduled for April 21.

Chanel Weaver, a spokesperson for the Baltimore district office, has said that the deal has been in negotiations with the US Army Corps of Engineers for two years. The deal has been approved by the US Department of Justice, Weave says, and the clean-up site is not dangerous, but access is restricted and the area has been fenced off.

W.R. Grace has been in bankruptcy since 2001. The chemical manufacturing company, along with 61 affiliated companies, filed for bankruptcy to protect it from several thousand asbestos-related lawsuits.

Along with thousands of former employees, and others who had been exposed to toxic substances as a result of the company’s activities, the EPA filed against W.R. Grace in 2003.

The EPA’s suit was a bid to recover the costs of clean-up at several mining locations where W.R. Grace had once operated.

The worst of these was in the town of Libby, Montana, where the company had once operated a vermiculite mine. That vermiculite mine was found to be contaminated with asbestos, but not until the asbestos-contaminated substance had found its way into millions of American homes as a form of insulation known under the commercial name of Zonolite. The mine was closed in 1990.

During the last decades, more than a thousand Libby residents have developed asbestos-related diseases as a result of working in or simply living near the contaminated mine. Asbestos had contaminated the town to an enormous extent, and the EPA’s cleaning efforts have been ongoing since 1999.

Last week, W.R. Grace agreed to contribute a total of $250 million to help clean up Libby. This constitutes the largest Superfund settlement in history, and resolves one of the few remaining clean-up claims that the company must deal with. W.R. Grace has so far negotiated clean-up payments for 32 sites.