Lawndale Cited by AQMD for Improper Asbestos Handling

The South Coast Air Quality Management District cited the city of Lawndale this week for improperly handling asbestos materials during the demolition of three city-owned buildings last month.

The city could be fined up to $25,000 a day as a result of its mishandling of the hazardous material during the three-day demolition, which occurred June 26-28 at 167th Street and Osage Avenue, according to AQMD officials.

Laboratory tests showed that samples of tile from the demolition site had a 37% asbestos content, according to district spokesman Tom Eichhorn.

The amount of asbestos that may have been released into the air could not be determined because it was not until June 30 that the AQMD received complaints about the problem, Eichhorn said. By that time, he said, “the dust had settled.”

Delayed Effect

Asbestos has been known to cause cancer and is regarded as particularly insidious because it often does not produce symptoms until many years after the initial exposure. Its handling is regulated by federal guidelines contained in the “National Emission Standard for Hazardous Air Pollutants,” officials said.

Researchers do not know how hazardous a brief exposure to asbestos can be, according to AQMD spokesman Bill Kelly.

“Science has found no one threshold of exposure below which you are safe from getting asbestos-related diseases,” Kelly said.

Lawndale City Manager Jim Arnold said Tuesday he did not wish to comment on the citation until he had an opportunity to review it. AQMD officials said the citation was sent to the city by certified mail on Monday.

In earlier interviews, city officials said they decided to undertake the demolition after a contractor who had been hired to do the job failed to show up. Arnold said that he and Public Works Director Jim Sanders, a civil engineer, had inspected the site before demolition and found no evidence that asbestos was present.

Specially licensed contractors are normally called in to handle asbestos removal. Among the special procedures they employ is wetting down materials so that asbestos fibers are not released into the air, according to the AQMD.

The one-page notice of violation, made available to The Times, cites the city of Lawndale for four failures to:

*Comply with federal requirements for the containment and removal of asbestos materials;

*Provide AQMD officials with a notice, 10 days in advance, of plans to demolish the three storage structures;

*Properly control asbestos emissions during demolition;

*Deposit asbestos-containing waste materials at a designated waste disposal site.

Eichhorn said that the AQMD’s chief prosecutor’s office will be reviewing the case in the next few weeks and could handle the violations in one of three ways.

The case could be resolved by negotiating a settlement, by filing a civil lawsuit, or by prosecuting it in the criminal courts, Eichhorn said. Many cases are resolved by a settlement, he said. The maximum penalty that could be imposed is $25,000 a day, he said.

It is up to the chief prosecutor whether Lawndale’s case would be viewed as one violation or whether the fine would be tripled for the three days during which the demolition took place, Eichhorn said.

Meanwhile, Lawndale residents who live near the demolition site are worried about the impact the improper asbestos removal could have on their health.

Surfaces Covered With Dust

June Mouzas, a supermarket checker who lives next door to the demolition site with her 86-year-old mother, said she has spent her vacation cleaning the house to remove any possible trace of asbestos. Because neighbors received no advance notice of the demolition, they left their windows open and inside surfaces became covered with dust, she said.

“I’ve taken down all the curtains and bedspreads and washed everything,” she said. “I’ve stripped everything down I could, washing the walls and even painting them. I just hope everything will be OK.”

Another neighbor, air cargo worker George Norman, said he is not sure what the AQMD ruling will ultimately mean to him, his wife and their 2 1/2-year-old son, Joshua.

“What I want to know is, is my family OK or not?” he said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “The hard part about this is that it is a long-term situation. We may not be sick today, or tomorrow, but who knows what will happen down the line?”