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PA MISSOURI ASBESTOS ABATEMENT COMPANY PLEADS GUILTY TO CLEAN AIR ACT VIOLATION
Release Date: 04/03/98
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FRIDAY, APRIL 3, 1998
MISSOURI ASBESTOS ABATEMENT COMPANY PLEADS GUILTY TO
CLEAN AIR ACT VIOLATION
On March 26, Major Abatement and Demolition Inc., of Kansas City, Mo., plead guilty in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri in Kansas City to one count of violating the Clean Air Act. The company admitted to, in the summer and fall of 1995, improperly removing approximately 800 linear feet of asbestos-containing insulating material from old underground steam pipes owned by the Trigen Steam Corp. in Kansas City, Mo. Major Abatement employees used jackhammers to break up the concrete jacket around the pipes, causing asbestos dust to be
released into the air. In addition, Major Abatement failed to properly wet the asbestos before it was removed, gave few of its workers proper protective gear, and illegally disposed of the asbestos as road fill at a rail road yard in an economically disadvantaged community in Kansas City. Inhalation of airborne asbestos fibers can cause lung cancer and a lung disease known as “asbestosis” in humans. When sentenced, Major Abatement faces a maximum fine of $500,000. Major Abatement has also paid $100,000 to clean up the asbestos which it had illegally placed in the road bed. The case was investigated by EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division and the Kansas City Air Quality Control Division with the assistance of EPA’s National Enforcement Investigations Center.
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