Friday, March 12, 2010

Dallas Church Undergoes Asbestos Removal

A Dallas-area church that dates back to 1897 is undergoing asbestos removal and demolition. Workers at Ponce Contractors, the firm in charge of the demolition efforts at the Oak Cliff Christian Church in suburban Dallas, reported that the asbestos removal and remediation process should last until the first week of February. After the dangerous material has safely been removed from the premises, the work on tearing down the century-old structure can begin.

The site, purchased by the Dallas Independent School District last August, is slated to house an expansion of athletic facilities for nearby Adamson High School. Local activists, seeking to keep the church structure intact as a historical landmark, expressed dismay at seeing the initial efforts at taking down the long-standing structure. According to David Klempin, a longtime Oak Cliff resident, the church’s demolition would represent “a terrible loss” to the neighborhood.

In 1897, the congregation at the newly formed church selected the site and began holding services in a remodeled home. At that time, Oak Cliff was considered a small town, far away from the crowds and noise of nearby Dallas. The current structure was finished in 1916 and expanded in 1925 to meet the needs of the growing suburban population. When the church moved to a new building in 1962, the members agreed to sell the old building to the Revival Tabernacle Association, a Dallas-area non-profit organization.

For years, the church sat in a decaying neighborhood, its windows boarded and doors locked. At the time of its construction, workers used asbestos to insulate walls and pipes, as well as for fireproofing material. With the impending demolition, workers have had to use extra precautions to protect themselves from the hazards involved in handling loose asbestos-laced materials. Workers will typically wear breathing masks to insure that they do not inhale the fibers, as well as special coveralls that would prevent the fibers from attaching themselves to their clothing.

The news of the district’s plans to demolish the church came with as much surprise as it did with dismay for those in favor of attempting to preserve the site. Reverend Nita Allen, the current pastor of Oak Cliff Christian Church, said that “it’s going to be sad” for her and her congregation to see the old site demolished, although she recognized that “progress goes on”.

The fight for preservation over demolition also extends to the school itself. The main building on the Adamson High School campus was constructed in 1916, at nearly the same time as the nearby church. A bond issue passed last year allowed the school district to build a new school, which was the reason behind the district’s purchase of the church site.

A disagreement between school board members and prominent school alumni flared when the district announced plans to tear down much of the existing structure rather than modernize and remodel. With the plans for the new school still uncertain, no move has been made to investigate the presence or concentrations of asbestos at the current school site.


Sources:

Man Sentenced for Illegally Selling Asbestos Training Course Certificate

On October 19, 2009, John V. Bruce of Meriden, Connecticut pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Toxic Substance Control Act, or TSCA, in relation to asbestos.

According to U.S. Attorney Nora R. Dannehy, of the District of Connecticut, Bruce, 39 admitted he had sold a licensed asbestos remediation certificate, for $400, to an individual who never enrolled in or attended an asbestos remediation course.

The certificate was acquired in May of 2004, reportedly by an immigrant from Honduras who had arrived in the United States scarcely two weeks previously.

Not only was the certificate given for a class not attended, but Bruce’s company, Environmental Training and Consulting, Inc.(ETCI), of Vernon and Wallingford – which had been licensed in 1998 to deliver a four-day, 32-hour asbestos worker certification course – provided the certificate at a time when ECTI’s license to provide asbestos training had been expired for more than a year.

The TSCA, as administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, mandates that individuals removing asbestos from public buildings be trained and licensed under the EPA’s Model Accreditation Plan, or MAP, and that states adopt licensing requirements at least as strict as the EPA’s.

The State of Connecticut developed its asbestos accreditation program in 1995, and the program was approved by the EPA in July of that year.

Bruce’s firm, ETCI, was licensed under Connecticut’s MAP to deliver asbestos worker, asbestos supervisor, asbestos management engineer and asbestos project fabricator training, but the license was allowed to expire on January 1, 2003, or one year and four months before Bruce, 39, sold the certificate to an immigrant worker.

ETCI also operated as an asbestos removal firm under all the categories mentioned above, and the falsified certification, dated Dec. 19, 2002, resulted in an investigation by the Criminal Investigation Division of the EPA, which handed down a possible prison term of one year and a potential fine of up to $100,000.

On January 7, Bruce was sentenced to 200 hours of community service and ordered to pay a fine of $800, a reduced sentence that likely reflects the fact that Bruce is known to have violated only one statute of the TSCA, unlike Longley-Jones of Syracuse, New York, which in 2006 was assessed $4 million in fines for illegally removing asbestos from public buildings over a 15-year period, using untrained staff with no protective equipment.

Asbestos, a fibrous mineral widely used during most of the 20th century in insulative materials, floor and ceiling products, mastics, glues and caulks (as well as brake pads and household items like ironing board covers) is the only known cause of mesothelioma, a fairly rare but highly lethal form of cancer of mesothelial tissues that typically lies dormant for decades before producing symptoms of sufficient severity to force patients to consult a doctor.

By the time most mesothelial tumors are diagnosed and confirmed, patients are given little more than a year to live, but this situation may change now that early diagnoses – delivered by sampling pleural fluid – provide for more immediate treatment.


http://www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/cases/criminal/highlights/2010/bruce-john-10-20-09.pdf

http://www.wtic.com/Asbestos-Training-Company-Head-Charged-with-Faking/6062562

http://blog.syracuse.com/indepth/2009/05/from_the_archives_longleyjones.html