EPA, Maryland Schools Reach Settlement on Asbestos Management

PHILADELPHIA (July 2, 2009) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reached legal settlements in four cases in Maryland in an attempt to secure the dependable removal of materials containing asbestos in local schools.

In individual acceptance arrangements with EPA, Hereford United Methodist Church's Two by Two Preschool in Monkton, Trinity Episcopal Church's day school in Glen Arm, Key School, Inc. in Annapolis, and the Immanuel Lutheran Church's nursery school in Preston have all agreed to settlements regarding supposed infractions of the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA), the federal law that calls for schools to scrutinize and deal with building materials that could contain asbestos.

The offenses for which the four schools were cited included neglecting to organize and turn in a plan to manage asbestos-based materials, failing to consider all structures within the school in the plan, not carrying out reviews of all loose asbestos materials every three years as required, and not providing yearly appraisals of the plan to teachers, parents and employee unions.

However, the EPA did not believe that any teachers, students or other workers in these buildings suffered from asbestos exposure as a consequence of the alleged infractions. The schools that were named have now demonstrated their abidance with the criteria outlined by AHERA.

According to the AHERA guidelines, EPA could agree to cut back or do away with any potential penalties as a reward for the schools' willingness to work with EPA, their actions regarding getting into compliance with the rules and the cost outlays involved. The settlement arrangements are:

The Key School in Annapolis was cited for their failure to include additional buildings into the school's plan to manage asbestos on campus, as well as their failure to keep their records on asbestos training up to date. Since the school spent just over five thousand dollars to bring their campus within the compliance guidelines, the EPA gave the school a zero-dollar penalty.
The Day School at the Trinity Episcopal Church in Glen arm was cited for failure to conduct regular reviews every three years as required by the AHERA guidelines, give annual notification to teachers, parents and staff, document a plan to manage materials containing asbestos in the school buildings, and provide the necessary training to staff members in charge of implementing the management plan. The school spent fifteen hundred dollars to bring their school into compliance, thus the EPA gave the school a zero-dollar penalty.
The Nursery School at the Immanuel Lutheran Church in Preston was cited for their failure to create and turn in a plan to manage asbestos-based materials, as well as their failure to review the building for asbestos-based material every three years, give annual notification to teachers, parents and staff, and provide the necessary training to staff members in charge of implementing the management plan. When the school spent over thirteen hundred dollars to comply with the rules, the EPA gave the school a zero-dollar penalty.
The Two by Two Preschool at the Hereford United Methodist Church in Monkton was cited for failure to create and turn in a plan to manage asbestos-based materials, failure to review the building for asbestos-based material every three years and failure to provide the necessary training to staff members in charge of implementing the management plan. The school spent over seven thousand dollars in order to meet the requirements, thus the EPA issued a zero-dollar penalty.

Source: EPA website.

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