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EPA ISSUES ENFORCEMENT ORDERS FOR ASBESTOS VIOLATIONS IN WEST NEWBURY

Release Date: 10/29/1999
Contact Information: Peyton Fleming, EPA Press Office (617-918-1008)

BOSTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced it has issued a compliance order and a notice of noncompliance to the Pentucket Regional School District in West Newbury and Atlantic Floor Coverings Inc. in Salisbury for Clean Air Act violations concerning an asbestos removal project in the school district in 1998.

The enforcement actions stem from the improper removal and replacement of 5,000 square feet of vinyl asbestos floor by the Salisbury business at the regional high school in West Newbury in 1998. The work was done by Atlantic Floor Coverings.

Among the violations cited in the enforcement orders are: performing the removal work before thoroughly inspecting the areas affected by the removal operation; failure to use accredited individuals for the removal work; failure to adequately wet the asbestos floor during the removal operation; improper labeling of the asbestos waste containers; and failure to implement aggressive air sampling immediately after the work was completed.

EPA began its investigation last October - about eight weeks after the improper removal work was done. The work was done before school opened.

"Both the school district and the floor company were very remiss at how this asbestos removal project was handled and, by taking these actions today, we hope no such violations occur in the future," said John P. DeVillars, administrator of EPA's New England Office. "Air-borne asbestos can pose a major public health threat, especially when the violations take place at a high school with hundreds of students."

The enforcement action requires the school district to develop, within 90 days, an asbestos management work plan that will highlight the types and locations of all asbestos-containing materials at each of the school district's six school campuses. The school district had a management plan in place at the high school since 1989, but it failed last year to review the plan, which identified the asbestos-containing floor tile.