Schools’ Asbestos Removal Done Improperly, EPA Says

The federal program to remove cancer-causing asbestos from schools has been carried out improperly in three of the most populous areas of the nation, according to Environmental Protection Agency documents released Saturday.

The reports, prepared by EPA inspectors general for the New England, mid-Atlantic and Midwest regions, said the agency failed to give local school officials technical information needed to comply with its asbestos-removal rule.

The reports also said the EPA was not adequately conducting follow-up inspections at schools to ensure that local officials were finding asbestos and removing it safely.

The documents were released by Rep. James J. Florio (D-N.J.), chairman of the Energy and Commerce subcommittee on commerce and transportation, a frequent critic of the EPA’s asbestos removal program.

‘A Devastating Indictment’

“These audits contain a devastating indictment of EPA’s asbestos program by documenting a pattern of lax inspection and enforcement procedures and failures to distribute EPA guidance materials, the only information the federal government currently uses to assist schools in dealing with the asbestos hazard,” Florio said in a letter to EPA Administrator Lee M. Thomas.

Dave Ryan, an EPA spokesman, said that “many of the substantive issues in the reports have been addressed in large measure already.” He said that charges such as Florio’s “tend to divert attention from the real progress made” in getting asbestos out of schools.

One audit report said that as of last month, the six-year-old program had not been fully implemented in EPA Region 3, consisting of Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.

The auditors said that local school officials responsible for asbestos removal “did not implement a proper asbestos program because the agency did not distribute a key 1980 guidance document.”

So-Called ‘Black Book’

A similar complaint about distribution of the so-called “Black Book” was made by inspectors general in Region 1, in New England, and Region 5, consisting of Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Among other things, the document tells local officials how to properly examine their schools to find asbestos and how to remove it without endangering schoolchildren or removal workers.

Jack Moore, head of the removal program at the EPA, said the “Black Book” had received only limited distribution because it was too technical and complex to be of much practical use to local school officials.

He said that draft copies of a more readable version were mailed last month to 45,000 school districts.