Asbestos-Laced Concrete Found near Florida Highway

Officials with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection discovered a dozen additional locations thus far near the Sebring Parkway where samplings of concrete shards gathered during the last two months showed traces of asbestos contamination. In addition, oversized heaps of concrete pipe laced with the dangerous mineral have turned up at the Highlands County Landfill. Florida Department of Environmental Protection Project Manager Randal Landers stated that workers have gathered more than seventy concrete fragments from fourteen sites near the highway and have determined that they contain non-friable asbestos-containing material.

In a one-hundred-thirteen-page report, the asbestos detection laboratory at Dove Environmental Services of Miami examined multiple concrete samples from the affected freeway, with many of those shards left out in the open air before the inspection team arrived, including some samples spotted near a Boy Scout Lodge. In their report to FDEP Environmental Manager Sherrill Culliver, laboratory technicians at Dove determined that many of the fragments contained portions of both chrysotile and crocidolite forms of asbestos.

An email message dated 12 August 2009 to Rick Solis, a county employee at the time, from Highlands County Administrator Michael Wright, addressed Mr. Solis' worries about potential asbestos hazards from concrete pipes that ran near the highway. While Mr. Wright mentioned that county work crews had dismantled some parts of the pipe system, he and other county commissioners had determined that the danger was not sufficient enough to merit removing or abandoning all of the pipes in that area. Another email message, this one from Mr. Wright to the county commissioners stated that he understood that workers had not employed appropriate techniques for dealing with asbestos-containing materials in the pipes since at least 2007.

In an interview with a local newspaper, Mr. Landers said that the dangers involved in cleaning and disposing of asbestos-containing materials requires very specific techniques and process. He also reiterated that safety measures should always be followed, both to protect the workers on site as well as reducing any risks of exposure to the general public.

According to a document from the Highlands County Department of Solid Waste Management, any entities involved in asbestos disposal must file a forty-eight hour notice of disposal to the county landfill office and fill out asbestos removal forms to be filed with the state DEP. Disposal crews must present their paperwork to landfill administrators before they can start dumping their waste. The disposal method outlined includes wetting down the debris to prevent fibers from becoming airborne and placing the material in a hazardous waste bag. Workers should also wet down the first bag again before double-bagging all the asbestos.

Florida DEP officials stated that they did not receive any requests for permits to either Highlands County or any other entities requesting permission for asbestos removal or dumping. However, some reports show that the county dumped large amounts of material into a local landfill. Although the reports do not mention if the material dumped their contained asbestos, FDEP investigators did find large open piles of concrete with traces of asbestos on the property.

Mr. Landers said that his department will be coordinating efforts with the county to make sure that future projects dealing with asbestos removal follow all state and federal guidelines.

Sources: Florida DEP website, The News Sun

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