|
More than three years ago, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Research and Development began a project to evaluate an alternative method to speed up efforts to demolish abandoned, dilapidated buildings containing asbestos. The need to reduce the time and cost for asbestos remediation is critical. During a two-year period beginning in 2003, more than 166,000 asbestos-contaminated buildings were demolished or renovated nationwide, and the backlog of such structures is enormous.
The Office of Research and Development and EPA’s Region 6 (Dallas) designed a new asbestos cleanup procedure known as the Alternative Asbestos Control Method (AACM) and initiated a pilot cleanup to test it. The AACM procedures and pilot were reviewed by EPA scientists and independent experts. They were made available for review and comments before being tested.
EPA conducted the pilot cleanup project to scientifically test procedures and provide analytical data to offer a fresh view of asbestos cleanup methods. The pilot was conducted in a secure location at a decommissioned Army base, Fort Chaffee, which was declared surplus in 1997 with part of the facility passing to the Arkansas Army National Guard. The remainder of the site was to be turned over to the private sector once determined to be environmentally clean. The former Fort Chaffee has over 700 buildings that must be demolished in order to encourage development. The buildings date from the World War II era and contain a significant amount of asbestos-containing material that must be removed before the buildings can be demolished. The site provided a venue for side-by-side testing of the current asbestos removal procedures—the NESHAP (National Emissions Standard for Hazardous Air Pollutants) method—and the Alternative Asbestos Control Method. The test was successfully completed in May 2006.
The current NESHAP process involves removal of some asbestos materials prior to demolition of a structure. This process can be time-consuming and expensive. After demolition, the removed asbestos and the demolished structure are disposed of in approved landfills.
Similarly, the alternative method removes some friable (capable of becoming airborne) asbestos materials, but some asbestos-containing materials are allowed to remain. The interior of the structure is then pre-wetted with amended water (water with a wetting agent added) and the building is continuously wetted with amended water during demolition to control asbestos fiber release. All runoff is contained and processed. Demolition debris and several inches of affected soil from the AACM process are disposed of as asbestos-containing debris at an approved landfill.
Data from the evaluation demonstrated lower than expected levels of asbestos and reduced potential for worker exposure. The cost and time savings for the first study were also found to be significant. These preliminary findings show the AACM procedures to be appropriate for cleanup of many asbestos-containing buildings.
A copy of the EPA’s Office of Research and Development draft report titled, “Comparison of the Alternative Asbestos Control Method and the NESHAP Method for Demolition of Asbestos-Containing Buildings,” is available as a 229-page PDF from www.epa.gov/region6/6xa/pdf/aacm_final_report_review.pdf.
Congress Refuses to Act on Asbestos Litigation; NIOSH Moves on Research
For the last several Congresses, the Senate has debated establishing a federal trust fund for asbestos claims that would preempt state legislation and litigation. But with the change in Senate leadership, it is highly unlikely that either the trust fund approach to consolidating asbestos claims or the medical criteria approach for establishing a baseline for causal evidence will pass.
The federal trust fund would have allowed manufacturers and insurers to contribute to a single federal program to resolve asbestos injury cases in exchange for a limitation on direct claims. One goal of the trust fund was to minimize the cost of litigation, including the percentage of recoveries absorbed by plaintiff attorneys.
The medical criteria legislation will be postponed as the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) undertakes a major initiative to readdress asbestos in light of current technical capabilities and knowledge. The effort to identify new scientific advancements on the understanding of the nature and effect of asbestos and other mineral fibers on health means that litigation will remain in state courts and be based on widely varying evidence.
|
