Kentucky Fast-Tracks Deena Asbestos Cleanup

KY Energy and Environment Division Fast-Tracks Deena Asbestos Cleanup

In a Frankfort, Kentucky news released dated June 23, the state's Energy and Environment Cabinet Division of Waste Management is acting rapidly to remove asbestos-contaminated debris from the site of former Arlington-based Deena Products, a factory that made light fixtures.

The one-time electroplating operation where lamp fixtures were made, called Deena Products, closed in the late 1980s.

Located on KY 51 North, just outside of Arlington in Carlisle County, the former Deena Products opened in 1949 and made lighting fixtures using an electroplating process and at one time employed more than 300 individuals. It closed in the 1980s because owners didn't want to invest in the equipment and remediation measures mandated by the state to prevent pollution in a nearby stream.

The complex of buildings was taken down early in 2009. During that process, much of the metal was stripped out and reclaimed. However, an official inspection conducted during reclamation revealed the presence of a considerable amount of asbestos. Because the site was accessible to the public, and because of the dangers presented by so much asbestos debris, the site was fast-tracked for asbestos remediation. That is, officials from the state's Division of Waste Management were given the go-ahead to contract with a licensed asbestos remediation firm outside normal state procurement guidelines, and allowed to access special emergency funds to complete the remediation. This special funding, allocated in 1992, has been used to clean up 66 major and 500 smaller contamination sites within Kentucky, at a total cost of $30 million.

The cost of cleanup, originally estimated at $800,000, came in at $400,000, and 2,450 tons of asbestos-contaminated debris was removed from the site. Louisville-based Chase Environmental handled the emergency remediation, but one remaining building and the thousands of tons of uncontaminated debris remaining on the property remain the responsibility of the property owner(s), according to Shawn Cecil of Region 4 of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Superfund, a program created to clean up the nation's hazardous waste sites.

Asbestos, a fibrous mineral mined and widely used during most of the last century in insulation-type products, floor and ceiling tiles, and roofing materials, is the leading cause of a complex of diseases ranging from asbestosis, a respiratory ailment, to mesothelioma.

Mesothelioma is a unique cancer of the mesothelial lining of the chest and abdomen. The most dangerous form is malignant pleural mesothelioma, which takes decades to develop and manifest, and few current tests are definitive until the disease is so well developed that massive amounts of tissue and vital organs are involved.

As a result, diagnosis usually provides a very poor prognosis, and most patients are given between one year and 18 months to survive. Fewer than 10 percent of victims survive more than five years, and those are usually where early discovery and radical intervention has managed to slow or halt the spread of the tumor(s).

Sources: Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet website, EbioAnt website, Local12.com, Environmental-Expert.com

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