More Asbestos in Shaw Bldg. Remediation Than Had Been Imagined, Admitted To

Asbestos was found onsite at the Shaw Building.

 

A press release issued a few weeks ago by Niagara County listed “six minor performance” infractions found by one of the investigators into a May asbestos abatement project conducted by unprotected welfare in a fetid crawlspace underneath the county’s Shaw Building on Upper Mountain Road.

The 20 or so workers were not warned about the presence of asbestos, were not issued any protective gear to shield them from its’ potentially fatal affects and had received no training that would allow them to know whether asbestos was present, how to handle it if it was or what the affects could be.

And it turned out the rosy scenario the county portrayed in its’ news release was simply wrong. Rather than six “minor infractions,” Ann Marie Pfohl, Senior Industrial Hygienist with the New York Public Employee Safety & Health Bureau, determined there were eight violations, all of which she deemed “serious” in her report.

The actual extent of the asbestos problem became clear last week, as licensed asbestos contractor Mark Cerrone Inc. placed notices around the building that the company would be removing 2,500 linear feet of toxic asbestos pipe insulation and 6,000 square feet of soil from the crawl space itself due to asbestos contamination.

The soil, which makes up the floor of the crawl space, became contaminated over the years as the insulation on the overhead pipes was permitted to rot and fall away.

Bill Rutland, president of the county’s ACSME union, said he was horrified.

“We talking about a half mile of asbestos pipe insulation,” Rutland said. “In the county's own words, it was 95 percent intact.  That leaves 125 feet crumbled into e 6000 square feet of contaminated soil. The same soil kicked up by the soles of all the shoes worn by the workfare crews and taken home on their pant legs and socks. Same soil scattered into the staircase leading to the crawl space. Same soil swept, mopped and vacuumed by members of my union.  What horror!”

Asbestos, in wide use for many years, has been linked to several different types of cancers, as well as other respiratory illnesses. Unionized county workers had previously refused orders to enter the dirt floored, subterranean chamber and perform work.

A number of other agencies, including the State Department of Environmental Conservation’s Environmental Crimes Division and the Federal Environmental Protection Agency’s Criminal Investigations Division are probing the situation at the Shaw Building as well. The results of those investigations have not yet been made public.