And by next Friday, the site of the fire will be picked clean and the asbestos litter it left behind hauled away, the president of the company doing the cleanup said Thursday night at a neighborhood meeting.
"The source will be gone a week from today," Wade Johnstone of MCS Environmental told about 50 people gathered at the Missoula Senior Citizens Center.
But what people really wanted to know about Thursday evening was the asbestos-laden ash that escaped the fire and traveled through their neighborhoods. Several people said they have chunks of fire debris and ash in their yards still.
The 62,500-square-foot building that burned, the former truck-bed factory part of the sawmill operation, was lined with felt material with asbestos in it, said Chris Cerquone, a senior scientist with Geomatrix Consultants, which is in charge of the long-term voluntary cleanup plan. During the catastrophic fire, material blew west nearly to Reserve Street. MCS, which has specialized in asbestos projects for 16 years and is working on the contamination in Libby, has taken multiple samples of ash and air as it has started the fire cleanup.
Eight monitors around the immediate neighborhood have tested the ambient air for asbestos contamination.
"All the samples today have come back negative," Cerquone said. "There is no asbestos in the ambient air."
However, samples of ash in a wide area came back positive for asbestos late Thursday afternoon, he said. That neighborhood is bounded by Lafray Lane on the west, Second Street on the south, Idaho Street on the north and the lumber mill property to the east.
Samples taken farther west were negative, Cerquone and Johnstone said.
However, MCS will continue to sample in an area almost to Reserve Street, Johnstone said; teams of industrial hygienists will collect about 50 samples on Friday.
"These are screening tools we're using to try to get a handle on what we have," Johnstone said.
The asbestos is "not an acute health risk," Cerquone said.
"It's a long-term health risk through inhalation," he said. "The key is having it stay wet."
The asbestos in the ash is chrysotile asbestos, which is common in buildings and is also in brake linings in cars.
"It's not the same asbestos that's in Libby," Cerquone said.
Residents could help greatly by watering their yards, Johnstone said. They should refrain from mowing them, so as not to pulverize any asbestos present.
People should also avoid tracking the ash into homes and cars.
MCS crews will work through the neighborhood cleaning up as quickly as they can. Johnstone expects to reach a speed of multiple blocks per day. The firm, which is based in Missoula, will work through the weekend.
"This is a substantial process," Johnstone said.
Some residents outside the area believed to be affected said at the meeting that they had debris in their yards. Anyone in that situation should call the asbestos hot line set up by the Missoula City-County Health Department, 258-3500. Beginning Friday, the phone will be staffed by three people and every call responded to, Johnstone said.
"If someone says, 'We don't think you've done enough,' we're going to respond," Cerquone said.
One man who lives southeast of the site said he has fire debris on his lawn. It may have been spread, Cerquone and Johnstone said, in the reverse direction from the night of the fire on Wednesday, when rainstorms blew in from the west.
Geomatrix and MCS will hold neighborhood meetings on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. at the Sister Rita Mudd Activities Center, 1040 S. First St. W., until the area is cleaned up. Cerquone said. At the meetings, residents can pick up asbestos bags for disposal of debris, which should be wetted down before it's handled and disposed of in a plastic garbage bag.
City street sweepers went through the affected area the day after the fire. MCS staff took three loads to the landfill on Thursday and on Monday will start to load and haul the contained asbestos there.
Some residents complained that the 1,000 fliers that health officials distributed came too late or not at all after the fire.
Dennis Murphy, who lives on California Street, said the air was full of "really, really acrid" smoke Wednesday night.
Johnstone promised residents his firm will be thorough in the cleanup. MCS has worked on 2,500 to 3,000 asbestos projects around the West, he said.
"This is what we do," he said. "We've been doing this for a long time. We're local people in Missoula. We care about this."
The long-term cleanup plan drew few questions from the audience.
Cerquone had told the Missoula City Council in April that the old industrial site was less contaminated than expected, and the contaminants were less serious in nature.
Analysis of the site found two small areas of lead and four small areas of petroleum in the surface soil; petroleum in several areas and methylene chloride in two areas in the soil beneath the surface; and manganese in the groundwater. The manganese is at levels that smell and taste bad but aren't threatening to health, Cerquone said. The development of houses and businesses on the site will use Mountain Water Co. water.
"There's no petroleum in the groundwater," he said, "and there's no solvents in the groundwater."
The site also contains substantial amounts of wood waste, especially over the northern half. The wood waste contains areas of explosive gas.
The cleanup, which must meet EPA screening levels and state Department of Environmental Quality Tier 1 risk-based cleanup levels, will use several methods, Cerquone said. Geomatrix is recommending a middle-ground plan that combines removal of some soil and vapor extraction of contaminants in other soil, groundwater monitoring, removal of lead-based paints and asbestos and some restrictive covenants for the future development.
The cleanup will meet residential standards, Cerquone said.
"We want to do the best that we can do," he said.
The state DEQ will begin its 30-day review of the plan Sept. 9. The plan will be revised and resubmitted Nov. 30 and reviewed again by the DEQ starting in January. Another 30-day public comment and meeting will come around in February. The DEQ could approve the plan Feb. 15. Geomatrix would like to do the cleanup in March and April and have it certified finished by July 2006.
The plan is available at the office of Jenifer Blumberg, coordinator of the Missoula Brownfields Program, in the Office of Planning and Grants in City Hall, 258-3688. For the answers to questions, call Cerquone at 542-0129 or Kelly Schmitt at the DEQ in Helena at 841-5070.
|
 |
 |
Add your comment now! Write your comment in the form below.
(Email address is for verification only. If you'd like to email a story, look for the link above)