The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency started asbestos cleanup last week on the former Willamette Industries mill site owned by Western States Land Reliance Trust.
WSLRT Managing Trustee Dan Desler is facing air pollution charges in the 2007 demolition of the buildings on the 153-acre property, which is located on the southeast corner of the intersection of 18th and Tamarack streets, 2210 Tamarack St. The demolition stopped in February 2008.
The plywood mill, which consisted of the current areas of interest, was in operation from 1959 to 1994.
The buildings contain asbestos in the roofing, steam pipe wrapping and concrete, said EPA On-Scene Coordinator Dan Heister. The demolition mixed the asbestos-laden materials with clean materials, increasing the cost of cleanup.
The asbestos most likely to be released into the air, the most “friable,” is the steam pipe wrapping, Heister said. The other asbestos, in the roofing material and concrete, is locked in tar and concrete matrices.
“In time, anything becomes friable,” Heister said. This material has been on the ground going on two years.
“We’re not cleaning this up because we’re seeing high levels of asbestos coming off the site,” he said, but it could happen.
Had the materials containing asbestos been removed prior to demolition, the asbestos abatement would have cost less,
Heister said. The project estimate is $1.1 million. Over half the cost is for disposal.
Workers are sorting the material into piles of decontaminated clean materials, including wooden beams and concrete that weren’t in contact with asbestos.
Contaminated material is placed in “roll-off boxes,” es-sentially dumpsters lined with plastic and landscaping fabric. When full, 4.5 to 5 tons of material, those boxes are sealed using glue and plastic. The result is called a “burrito” in the trade. The burritos are sent to the Coffin Butte landfill near Corvallis.
So far, crews have sent 260,000 pounds of material to Coffin Butte.
“Coffin Butte can receive the asbestos,” Heister said. “They just have to put it into a specialized area known as an asbestos cell.”
Mother Nature is helping with the cleanup, he said. “What we’re doing to manage the material is to keep it wet. It’s been perfect cleanup weather because it’s been raining and sunny, rainy and sunny.”
Workers keep the material hosed down when it’s dry, he said, and even with the rain, sometimes when they get deep enough into the debris, dust may try to escape.
Water is caught in a tank where it can be filtered, pumped and sampled before sending it to the city’s wastewater treatment plant, Heister said. The water will meet the same treatment standards the city must meet. The project has yet to fill the first tank.
Waterborne asbestos is far less dangerous than airborne asbestos, he said. “Drinking asbestos is not good for you, but it’s not lethal.”
Airborne particles 10 microns or larger are what cause scarring in the lungs and lead to asbestos-related diseases.
Air sampling around the site have not detected any airborne asbestos, Heister said. The EPA also is sampling air at a nearby residence where children live.
The EPA also is monitoring dust levels, he said. When the dust levels spike, the dust monitors sound a warning. He can compare data between the two monitors.
Last week, when the burn ban was lifted, the dust monitors detected large spikes, he said, with five burn piles nearby.
Additional periodic air sampling allows the EPA to determine the form of asbestos particles, Heister said.
The material on the site is chrysotile, among the most common types. It’s used in concrete shingles, popcorn ceilings and more.
“It’s all around us,” Heister said, gesturing around the mill and toward housing across the street. As long as it’s painted and maintained, it poses no threats.
Where it causes problems is situations like the mill where the demolition has broken it into pieces, he said.
DEQ samples also indicate the presence of the amosite form of the mineral, according to the EPA. Amosite, which is rich in iron, is used as a heat-resistant material. DEQ samples have shown from less than 1 percent up to 45 percent asbestos.
The debris covers approx-imately 30,000 square feet in the kiln area and 33,000 square feet in the sorter-stacker area.
Work crews will continue removing debris into the parts of the building that remain standing, Heister said. He cannot leave an unsafe structure behind and will probably have an enclosed elevated hallway demolished. That hallway contains wrapped steam pipes, which will need to be removed first.
The crews also will remove a section of roof collapsed inside a remaining portion of the building.
That area, the location of the easternmost kiln, has a corrugated concrete-asbestos roof and is probably the most contaminated section, with material that is 25 percent asbestos, Heister said. It also is the best protected with walls all around it.
Inside the “hot zone,” the debris area, workers wear protective clothing and masks. The two heavy equipment operators and two other workers wear air sampling devices while working. None of them have detected asbestos.
After the end of the workday, workers enter a small trailer with showers they use for decontamination. Equipment is washed to prevent asbestos particles from leaving the area.
Heister projects it will take another four or five weeks to finish the project.
“I think we can make that providing there are no big surprises.”
The EPA is using “superfund” money to clean the site, Heister said. “There’s an impression the taxpayer is paying for it. That’s not quite true.”
The superfund started in the 1980s, he said, with a per-drum tax on hazardous waste. That tax reached a sunset in the mid 1990s and was not renewed by the federal government.
Since then, the superfund has been managed to sustain itself, including going after property owners for the cost of pollution cleanup, Heister said.
The EPA is cleaning up the site at the request of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.
Ecology and Environment, Inc., is contracted for science services. Environmental Quality Management is the construction contractor. ATEZ, Inc., of Harrisburg is a subcontractor specialized in asbestos working for EQM
.
A public meeting was scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday to discuss the cleanup, but officials did not notify The New Era in time to publicize it.
For more information and additional photos, visit the EPA website at http://www.epaosc.org/site/site_profile.aspx?site_id=5474.