Clapper, Patti, Schweizer and Mason

In a lawsuit against the New Jersey contractor who demolished the DuPont plant in Gibbstown the Untied States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has alleged mishandling of asbestos containing materials and other offenses that created a public health threat.  The company hired to do the demolition now faces federal charges, steep fines, and further investigation in the wake of this disaster.

The Repauno Plant was torn down by Lovett Contracting Inc. who, it is alleged, allowed asbestos to remain onsite in the form of nearly 5,000 feet of piping and 3,000 feet of pipe insulation even as the plant was forcibly dismantled.  In accordance with federal regulations, asbestos materials such as those listed above must be removed from a demolition site before the building is toppled.  The demolition process can release harmful asbestos fibers in the air and not only endanger the health of the workers on site but that of the public passing by or downwind from the jobsite. 

And that’s exactly what the EPA is claiming, that the company violated the Federal Clean Air Act by forcibly ejecting frangible asbestos into the air.  This is an extremely serious claim as exposure to airborne fibers (even short term exposure) can cause asbestos diseases like mesothelioma, asbestosis, and various other forms of cancer.  Mesothelioma is perhaps the most well-known asbestos disease and can occur in patients who were only exposed to the hazardous materials for a few hours.  Currently, there is no cure for mesothelioma and available treatments are relatively ineffective. 

The controversy began when EPA inspectors noted that the amount of asbestos within the old manufacturing plant was much too high to be dealt with without using special precautions.  They ordered Lovett Contracting to follow prescribed precautions for handling the dangerous material but the company, for whatever reason, failed to do so.

The fines for such violations are extremely high and are so because the risk to human health and wellbeing is so great.  Lovett Contracting could be hit with a maximum of $32,000 in penalty fees per violation, per day.  The lawsuit doesn’t state how many days on which violations occurred so the total fines won’t be known until the case goes to trial.

EPA spokesperson Elias Rodriguez said that because asbestos is a known carcinogen that any company removing materials containing the mineral must use “. . . water and equipment such as glove bags and other containment measures prevents the release of asbestos fibers and minimizes the chance of exposure.”

These methods are used to reduce the levels of airborne asbestos that can be inhaled or ingested.  In addition, workers generally must block of areas of the jobsite which contain asbestos and were special respirators that can filter out asbestos fibers. 

It’s not clear just how much of a threat Lovett Contracting released on their unsuspecting workers but the details will come out when the EPA presents its case.