Inspector for State Accused of School Asbestos Cover-up

A state inspector is under criminal investigation for allegedly not reporting the presence of potentially hazardous asbestos in dozens of schools around the state, according to a report released Tuesday by state Auditor General Thomas W. Hayes.

Furthermore, the report indicates that the problem of asbestos contamination in public schools is widespread and that as many as three-fourths of the state’s school districts have not complied with federal asbestos regulations.

“It does suggest there could be significant problems throughout the state school system,” Hayes said in an interview.

The improper checks by the state inspector, according to Hayes, prevented school officials and children from avoiding unnecessary exposure to the widely used insulation. Breathing asbestos fibers can cause cancer and other painful lung diseases to which children are particularly vulnerable, the report noted.

Inspector Identified

“Because parents, students and school employees were not notified that asbestos was found in their schools, they could not take precautions to limit their exposure to asbestos,” Hayes said in the report.

Hayes identified the inspector as Charles Puentes, a state Department of Education employee who was working under contract with the federal Environmental Protection Agency to determine how well schools had carried out their own inspection programs.

According to the auditor general, Puentes did not report the presence of asbestos in dozens of schools that he visited throughout the state. Instead, he allegedly encouraged school officials to complete backdated reports falsely showing that the facilities had been properly inspected.

Thomas Connelly, a special agent with the EPA, said the agency is conducting a criminal investigation of Puentes but declined to discuss what charges might be brought against him.

A spokeswoman for state schools Supt. Bill Honig said Puentes was suspended with pay three weeks ago while his case is under investigation.

Puentes, reached at his home near Sacramento, declined to discuss the case and referred all questions to his attorneys, who could not be reached for comment.

Motive Not Determined

Honig’s office and Hayes said they have been unable to determine a motive for the allegedly improper inspections.

“I don’t think there’s any gain from it,” Hayes said. “Everybody’s the loser: the school kids, the taxpayers and the state Department of Education.”

The widespread presence of asbestos highlighted by the Puentes case has alarmed state officials who are concerned that the insulation material popular in the 1960s and ‘70s poses a serious threat to public health that will be extremely costly to eliminate.

Under federal law, school districts were required by 1983 to inspect all schools for the presence of deteriorating asbestos insulation, known as “friable” asbestos, that was releasing fibers into the air. In such cases, school officials were to notify parents and employees of the location of the asbestos so children and workers could avoid breathing the dangerous material.

To determine how well school districts had complied with the law, the EPA initiated a reinspection program and targeted a sampling of school districts around the state. The agency arranged for Puentes, among others, to conduct the new inspections.

In checks conducted by its own inspectors at 156 school districts in California, the federal agency found that 77% of the districts were in violation of the federal regulations.

Officials at the EPA initially became suspicious of Puentes’ findings when he reported violations in only seven of the 61 school districts he examined--a rate of 11%.

Federal and state officials said they reinspected some of the schools examined by Puentes and found a high rate of violations by school officials.

Investigators’ Visits

Investigators from the EPA and the auditor general’s office visited 22 schools in seven districts that Puentes had reported were in compliance with the law. At 21 of the schools, Hayes said, investigators found friable asbestos.

Although Puentes had reported that all of the schools had appropriate inspection records, the state and federal investigators found proper records were available at only two of the 22 schools.

In addition, school officials in four of the districts said Puentes either “directed or encouraged them to sign documents indicating that inspections for asbestos had been conducted before June 28, 1983, as the federal regulations required,” the report said.

In some cases, Puentes typed backdated documents himself or instructed school secretaries to type such documents for school officials to sign, according to Hayes’ report. He then attached these falsified documents to the reports he submitted to the EPA, investigators found.

Puentes told investigators from the auditor general’s office that he filled out the school districts’ documents but, according to the report, said he did so “upon the advice and direction” of the EPA. EPA officials denied Puentes’ claim that he prepared these documents at their instruction.