DEQ Fines Klamath County, C.P. Contractor For Asbestos Violation

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has issued an $8,229 penalty to Klamath County for allowing an unlicensed person to perform an asbestos abatement on a county road project at the corner of Crosby and Broadmore streets in Klamath Falls.

DEQ also fined Central Point contractor Pilot Rock Excavation $4,200 for conducting an asbestos abatement without being licensed as an asbestos abatement contractor.

On May 1, DEQ staff conducted a site visit at a storm drain installation project on Crosby Street performed by Pilot Rock under contract with the Klamath County Department of Public Works. The county owns the project site and supervised or controlled the storm drain project.

DEQ staff saw the contractor had excavated about 825 linear feet of buried asbestos-containing pipe from the area of the planned storm drain trench in a manner that broke or shattered about 40 linear feet of the pipe. DEQ laboratory analysis of a sample of the broken pipe revealed that the pipe contained 52 percent asbestos. To protect human health and the environment, state laws set strict requirements on the removal, handling and disposal of material containing more than 1 percent asbestos.

Removing the asbestos-containing pipe caused about 40 linear feet of the pipe to be friable, or capable of releasing asbestos fibers into the air and exposing the public to asbestos. Asbestos fibers are a respiratory hazard proven to cause lung cancer, mesothelioma, asbestosis and other respiratory diseases; they are a hazardous air contaminant for which there is no known safe level of exposure.

A licensed asbestos abatement contractor would have wet the material during removal, placed it in leak-tight containers, clearly labeled the containers as asbestos-containing and disposed of it in a timely manner at an authorized disposal site to prevent emissions of asbestos fibers into the air.

Nonfriable (unbroken and intact) asbestos-containing waste material can be legally and safely handled by homeowners and general contractors, provided it is wet and remains intact during the removal process. As there are various handling and notification requirements for different types of asbestos-containing materials, contacting DEQ is recommended before starting any related project.

Appeal procedures allow Klamath County and the contractor 20 days to appeal the penalty.