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Town of Marshall, NC Cited For Asbestos Removal Violations
By asbestoshub | June 24, 2009
Sounds like the Town of Marshall, NC was trying to cut some corners and got busted. Now the NC Deptartment of Labor has cited the town of Marshall with some violations for improper removal of asbestos from the town hall.
According to a notification of penalty issued June 5, the town faces $1,750 in fines for failing to properly protect workers when they were tasked with removing tile that contained asbestos.
The citation came after an investigator with the N.C. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Division inspected the town hall, which was recently remodeled, to determine if asbestos had been improperly removed from the building as it was being renovated.
An architect who had previously volunteered to give advice for the renovations filed a complaint with OSHA, claiming the town may have improperly removed asbestos. The Town of Marshall might be reconsidering the idea of just how helpful the volunteer was.
In its report, the Department of Labor listed five violations in the town hall renovations, including unregulated work, and that an exposure assessment was not conducted by a competent person — well except for the volunteer architect, who turned out to be a little too competent — also that the town did not use engineering controls and work practices in accordance with law. Workers were apparently allowed to sweep or shovel asbesto — imagine the dust!! — and that the asbestos work was not supervised appropriately. Most importantly, the workers were not provided with respirators since the town didn’t even attempt to identify the presence, location and quantity of asbestos before beginning the work.
In North Carolina, the state requires asbestos-containing materials to be removed prior to any activity that will disturb the material. “Only North Carolina-accredited asbestos professionals can perform these activities,” according to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.
Marshall Mayor Lawrence Ponder said Alderman Luther Nix was responsible for the renovation work. “We, the town, were told by Katherine Bond to avoid this problem by putting down commercial carpet and not ripping up the tile. But when Alderman Nix said we’re not going to do that, we figured he knew what he was doing. He was fully responsible” for overseeing the renovations, Ponder said. Yes, point fingers and lay the blame somewhere else.
The mayor, who only votes in case of a tie on the board, said the town aldermen have been embroiled in numerous arguments for more than a year due to a 3-2 split on the board. “I’ve said time and time again, a house divided against itself cannot stand,” he said.
Contacted Monday afternoon, Nix declined to speak on the record about the mayor’s allegations. “What I do is for the people, and the town,” he said.
The town has 15 days to respond to the citations.
