Utah Navajos Angered Over Asbestos Cleanup Conditions

SALT LAKE CITY - Worker safety was cited as a primary concern when a Navajo contractor pulled her 23 worker crew off a demolition project in Montezuma Creek. The Navajo workers had just begun to take part in the ongoing demolition of the old Aneth Gas Plant when it was discovered that the defunct facility's structures were heavily contaminated with asbestos. Asbestos is a known cancer-causing agent, and the hazardous material had been observed floating in the air at the Aneth demolition site shortly after the nearly two dozen workers had arrived.

Sara Maryboy is the owner of an oil field service company whose workers had just been assigned to assist a Chevron subcontractor with the gas plant demolition, and she reacted quickly when her employees first reported the presence of asbestos in the air at the site. "The whole staff there said, ‘this is wrong'", reported Maryboy. "If the place is not safe for me or my guys, we're out of there. So, we pulled out."

Maryboy immediately contacted the Navajo Nation Occupational Health and Safety Office (NNOHSO), which conducted an immediate investigation that revealed the fact that substantial amounts of asbestos had been released into the environment surrounding the community of Montezuma Creek. Worker safety officials closed the demolition site from last August until December, during which time asbestos abatement personnel removed the extremely hazardous material from the site, but Maryboy continues to be concerned about the long-term health dangers the asbestos release may still pose to the entire community.

Asbestos is a general term for a wide variety of naturally occurring silicate minerals that can be found in countries around the world. Asbestos exists in numerous chemical compositions, colors, and types, many of which have been widely used by mankind for thousands of years. Asbestos can be mined from the ground or extracted from above ground rock formations, and it possesses a number of unique properties that once caused it to be widely prized by a broad spectrum of industries. Asbestos is nearly fireproof, it has a superior tensile strength, resists moisture, mold, and harsh corrosive damage, is an excellent insulator and more.

Because of its many desirable characteristics, asbestos found its way into a long list of products that includes everything from building materials to auto parts to baby powder. In the early 1970s, however, scientists and medical experts confirmed the fact that asbestos poses a significant threat to health when microscopic, airborne asbestos fibers are inhaled into the lungs. These fibers will typically become permanently embedded in soft lung tissues where, up to 50 years later, they can cause the onset of serious respiratory diseases such as the dreaded, incurable, and inevitably fatal form of lung cancer known as malignant pleural mesothelioma.

Clearly, members of the Montezuma Creek community have just cause to be concerned about the significant release of asbestos fibers from the Aneth Gas Plant. Those concerns were compounded when NNOHSO seemed to side completely with Envirocon, Inc., a firm that had ultimately been held to be responsible for the asbestos contamination. Maryboy points to the fact that Envirocon had been found guilty of over 65 asbestos handling and management regulations, which had resulted in an initially proposed fine of $15 million, a penalty that has now been lowered to $11,000.

Maryboy calls the light slap on the wrist fine "ridiculous", and he says it points to a disturbing pattern of NNOHSO behaviors that suggest the Navajo community is being poorly protected by the environmental organization. Maryboy's call for further investigations into any remaining health risks, as well as other related matters, have not been responded to by NNOHSO or other officials.

"We are the forgotten child of the Navajo Nation," said Maryboy. "Those people who don't know anything about asbestos, I feel bad for them down the road."

Source: Salt Lake Tribune

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