12/04/08 Bend
 
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has issued a $15,000 civil penalty, jointly and severally, to Hoviss Build Group LLC and Willamette Builders Group LLC, two contract construction businesses. Violations comprising the penalty include performing unlicensed asbestos abatement projects during demolition of three mobile home units at Sun Country Mobile Home Park in Bend, and failing to deposit asbestos-containing waste material at a DEQ-approved disposal site.
 
Asbestos is an air contaminant for which there is no known safe level of exposure and a respiratory hazard proven to cause lung cancer, mesothelioma and asbestosis. DEQ regulates the handling and disposal of any material containing more than one percent asbestos.
 
The property owner contracted for an asbestos survey conducted at the mobile home park, located at 61550 Alstrup Road, on April 22, 2008. The survey detected asbestos-containing paint on the roofs of at least three units, indicating that a licensed asbestos abatement contractor should properly remove these roofs.
 
Instead, Hoviss and Willamette Builders Group employees demolished the units' roofs, causing the asbestos-containing paint to chip off and potentially become a toxic air pollutant harmful to the employees, the public and the environment. 
 
Demolition of the roofs rendered the paint on the roofs "friable," meaning likely to release asbestos fibers into the air. An Oregon-licensed asbestos abatement contractor must handle asbestos-containing materials that can easily release asbestos fibers. Oregon rules require that only specially trained and licensed contractors perform friable asbestos abatement projects. Hovis, Willamette and their employees do not have licenses to conduct such projects.
                                              
A licensed asbestos abatement contractor would have known to wet, properly contain, label and dispose of the material to prevent ongoing emissions of asbestos into the air. The two companies failed to wet the asbestos-containing material generated by the project, allowed some of the material to remain open on the ground at the park without packaging and did not properly dispose of any of it an authorized disposal site as required.
 
Hoviss Build Group LLC and Willamette Builders Group LLC have 20 days to appeal the penalty.
 
In a related matter, DEQ issued a $16,651 penalty to Central Oregon Investors LLC, the owner of Sun Country Mobile Home Park, for allowing unlicensed workers to perform an asbestos abatement project. Under Oregon Environmental Law, facility owners may use only licensed abatement contractors trained to perform asbestos abatement projects. Central Oregon Investors LLC has appealed its penalty.