Long Beach : Asbestos Work Suspended
Perini Land & Development Corp., owner of the International Towers in Long Beach, has agreed to cease all interior work above the building’s lobby pending the outcome of a July 16 hearing or until the city Health Department can work out a plan to eliminate high levels of asbestos in the luxury high-rise.
“Whatever needs to be done . . . will be done,” said Richard Blaskey, an attorney representing the Delaware-based corporation.
The tentative agreement was reached after tenants of the waterfront building on Ocean Boulevard went to Long Beach Superior Court this week seeking a temporary restraining order against remodeling work at the building, which has been undergoing conversion to condominiums since January. Tenants say the work has been conducted in an unsafe manner that included the release of unhealthy levels of asbestos, a cancer-causing substance.
Judge James M. Sutton, in accepting the agreement, declined to grant the temporary restraining order but set a July 16 hearing on it. That hearing may be waived, both sides now say, if the developer and the city can come up with an acceptable plan to eliminate the asbestos contamination before then.
In a letter last week, Dr. Rugmini Shah, the city’s health officer, indicated that she had ordered the company to “clean” the building to a level of less than .01 fibers of airborne asbestos per cubic centimeter. Recent testing by the state Occupational Safety and Hazards Administration indicated asbestos levels as high as .04 fibers per cubic centimeter, four times the amount allowed in schools.
