Under the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA), can a local education agency (LEA) hire one abatement firm both to conduct a response action and to carry out the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) clearance air monitoring on that project?

No. In Unit II.B.2 of Appendix A to 40 CFR part 763, subpart E it states that TEM “[s]ampling operations must be performed by qualified individuals completely independent of the abatement contractor to avoid possible conflict of interest.” Accordingly, the LEA would have to select another person or firm “completely independent” of the abatement contractor to do this work. The abatement firm would not be allowed to subcontract this work since the subcontractor is not “completely independent” of the contractor.