Clapper, Patti, Schweizer and Mason

A Salem, Oregon company was fined $27,000 in penalty for a recent asbestos-related violation of the Clean Air Act.  Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) levied the fine against Cascade Paving Inc. after accusing the company of not only illegally transporting and disposing of asbestos containing materials but grinding those materials up, potentially exposing not only workers but hundreds of local people to a potentially lethal carcinogen. 

The company, which is not licensed to perform asbestos abatement projects, was hired to demolish a 90-year-old house which was owned to the Oregon Employees Federal Credit Union.  The building was destroyed without regard to the safe handling of asbestos containing building materials (common in construction materials until 1980, or to providing safety equipment to workers handling them. 

The leftover materials were them ground up in a machine for transport, resulting in a coating of asbestos dust on neighborhood cars and buildings

Asbestos fibers, especially airborne fibers, can cause mesothelioma (a lethal form of cancer) in the lungs, heart and abdominal cavities.  The disease has no cure and kills over 3,000 people per year in the United States alone.   

Materials at the jobsite which contained asbestos included:

• Sheets of vinyl flooring
• Heat duct insulation
• Vinyl floor tile
•  Roofing adhesive

After the materials were ground, Cascade Paving then transported them in open containers—another violation of federal law—and deposited them in the Riverbend Landfill--which is not licensed, authorized, or approved to handle such hazardous materials. There are strict federal, state and local regulations about proper removal of asbestos that contractors are required to follow.

The DEQ fine broke down as follows:

• $10,200 for openly accumulating asbestos-containing waste material
• $9,600 for disposing of the material at an unauthorized dump site
• $7,200 for causing visible emissions

The company was also issued a warning for performing an asbestos abatement without a license.

The company will have the opportunity to appeal the DEQ fines but will most likely pay the fines. 

However, it may be decades before any of those endangered by the careless handling of asbestos containing materials find out if they’ve been harmed by the actions—asbestos diseases have latency periods of up to 50 years.