Ohio city responds to epa fines

East Liverpool, Ohio â€" A meeting between East Liverpool officials and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has been scheduled for May 28, for discussion of the proposed $30,000 fine the agency plans to impose on the city. The incident which prompted the fine came to light in May 2005, says Jim Swoger, Mayor of East Liverpool. The incident involved Street Department Supervisor Earl Taylor, who hired a contractor to remove asbestos-containing pipe insulation from a city-owned building. Around 500 linear feet of pipe insulation was removed and buried by Earl Taylor at a clean landfill site on city-owned property. Several days later William Cowan, then-Service Safety Director, notified the Ohio EPA about the asbestos removal and disposal and expressed concerns about the safety of the procedure. Asbestos removal must be carried out carefully to prevent exposure, which can cause cancer and other serious diseases. Safe and legal removal of asbestos includes wet-removal procedures to prevent dust dispersal. Disposing of asbestos safely is another important issue, as asbestos at landfill sites can present a health hazard to anyone working or visiting the site. Asbestos can only be disposed of at waste sites that are equipped to handle hazardous materials. As it turned out, the removal and disposal of the asbestos was illegal. The asbestos removal was carried out with the knowledge or consent of the Ohio EPA. The agency also says the removal did not adhere to the safety standards required to limit the production and spread of asbestos dust. In addition the asbestos was disposed of at a site that was not licensed to receive asbestos waste. Soon after the problems were discovered, several workers from Cardinal Environmental Services cleaned up the remaining asbestos at the removal site and at the landfill, at a cost of around $15,000. Subsequently the Ohio EPA notified city officials of its intentions to impose a fine, and gave the city 14 days in which to respond with payment or a negotiation request. East Liverpool will negotiate the fine at the May 28 meeting which has now been scheduled. Swoger says he doesn’t understand why the EPA has imposed the fine, because city officials didn’t try to hide the incident, the asbestos has been cleaned up, and Earl Taylor himself had already been fined $2,000. The EPA’s proposed fine of $30,000 will be split, with $24,000 going to the EPA and $6,000 to the Ohio EPA’s Clean Diesel School Bus fund. The fund helps cover the cost of retrofitting school buses with equipment to reduce diesel emissions. (Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News)