Archive for the ‘Oregon’ Category

Washtenaw County, Michigan - An effort to restore an old Navy ship is being delayed due to money shortages. The high cost of restoration includes money for asbestos abatement, as the substance was heavily used in Navy vessels during much of the twentieth century.

The ship in question is the USS Washtenaw County, which served in the Vietnam War. The ship is currently docked on the Columbia River downstream from Rainier, Oregon. Due to environmental concerns, such as the presence of asbestos on the ship, it can’t be towed to sea and sunk, and due to money shortages, restoration can’t be completed.

The USS Washtenaw County is the only Navy ship which bears that name. The vessel is an LST, a flat-bottomed ship designed to effectively navigate rivers, and land on beaches when troops or equipment need unloading. She earned more than twenty distinctions for her Vietnam War service, including earned 13 battle stars, two Presidential Unit Citations, two Navy Unit Commendations, and four Meritorious Unit Commendations.

Walt James of Portland, Oregon is a member of the company which owns the ship. He says the chances of restoration being completed are slim, to the projected cost of the project, which could be as high as one million dollars. Currently the restoration fund totals just $14,000.

Since the USS Washtenaw County was decommissioned in 1973, she has been bought and resold a number of times. It was finally purchased by the Amphibious Forces Memorial Museum in Vancouver, Wash., in 2005, a partnership comprising Walt James and two associates. They had planned to restore the ship, but the unexpectedly high cost, together with the problems caused by theft and damage to the ship, has prevented the project from moving ahead.

Much of the current trouble is due to the theft of valuable metal from the ship with around $100,000, and damage to the ship’s engine room caused by the thieves. In addition, there is asbestos and other toxins present on the ship, which contributes to the high cost restoration.

Walt James has already put $20,000 of his own money into the fund, and says the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality is now pressuring him to move the ship from its current location on the Columbia River.

However, the Coast Guard is telling him exactly the opposite: that the presence of asbestos, PCBs, and oil on the ship means it can’t be moved. The EPA has also told him that the ship can’t be sunk at sea due to the presence of those toxins.

Oregon – This week the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality announced it had issued eleven penalties, for a total of $73, 560, in the month of April. The largest penalty? A fine issued to an asbestos abatement company for improper and illegal asbestos removal.

April’s largest penalty was issued to Performance Abatement Services, Inc., a DEQ-licensed asbestos abatement contractor. The penalty was issued in connection with a series of asbestos violations that occurred while the company was carrying out an abatement project in September 2007 at the Candalaria Mall in Salem.

The Oregon DEQ first became aware of the asbestos violations when agency representatives carried out a compliance inspection on September 12, 2007. The inspector noticed that ceiling tiles containing asbestos had been removed and packaged for disposal by the abatement company, but had not been properly wetted down as Oregon law requires.

In addition, the DEQ representative noticed that asbestos sheet vinyl flooring, which was contained in waste bags on the site, had also not been wetted down properly.

As well as these problems, the DEQ also noticed that other materials that were potentially contaminated with asbestos, including carpet, wood, metal, and fiberglass insulation, that should have been considered asbestos-containing materials, had not been properly packaged in leak-proof containers. The contaminated waste was being hauled off the site and treated as normal uncontaminated demolition debris.

The DEQ says that around 12,000 square feet of asbestos-containing materials were removed from the project site.

According to the DEQ, “Because asbestos-containing waste material was allowed to accumulate at the mall site after the abatement and then hauled off site as demolition debris, workers and the public were potentially exposed to asbestos fibers released into the air.”

Wetting down asbestos-containing materials is an important part of abatement work because it reduces the possibility of asbestos fibers being released into the air (where they can be inhaled). Materials that were removed from the site contained between 2% and 20% Chrysotile asbestos.

According to the DEQ report, “Asbestos fibers are a respiratory hazard proven to cause lung cancer, mesothelioma and asbestosis, and asbestos is a danger to public health and a hazardous air contaminant for which there is no known safe level of exposure.”

The fine issued to Performance Abatement Services, Inc. totals $24,900. The asbestos contractor appealed the penalty but a hearing has not yet been scheduled.