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St. Louis Might Have Violated Laws When Tearing Down Houses to Build Runway
By asbestoshub | March 4, 2009
Federal Judge Carol Jackson is considering whether to sanction the city of St. Louis for violating clean air laws when it demolished subdivision homes to make way for a new airport runway.
Judge Jackson heard arguments in February 2009 in the penalty phase of a case she ruled on in September. The City of St. Louis violated the U.S. Clean Air Act when it used the “wet method” to remove asbestos from homes it was demolishing to make way for a new runway at Lambert Airport.
Residents in the suburb of Bridgeton sued the city of St. Louis over its mishandling of the demolition from 2000 to 2004.
The City of St. Louis demolished 1,900 homes and 70 businesses for the runway project, but the case focused on 99 of the homes.
For more than four years, the city used the unapproved technique called the wet method, in which a building with asbestos is sprayed with water as it is leveled.
The water is supposed to prevent asbestos dust from being released into the air or soil. Though the method involves removing the asbestos by hand, critics argue that the technique is unproven and dangerous.
Judge Jackson wrote in her September ruling that the city was duty-bound to comply with federal clean air laws, or demonstrate to the EPA that the wet-demolition method was just as safe as the approved method.
But what was federal law? The EPA has said it didn’t know the city was using the unapproved method until 2003, and when authorization expired the following year, the EPA extended it for another year.
Yet the EPA also halted a proposal to use the same technique in Fort Worth, Texas.
Topics: Exposure |
