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U.S. EPA SETTLES MOSS LANDING ASBESTOS CASE FOR $68,000

Release Date: 5/10/1995
Contact Information: Arnold Robbins, U.S. EPA, (415) 744-1486 Tom Manheim, Monterey Bay, Unified APCD, (408) 647-9411

Released Jointly by U.S. EPA and Monterey Bay Unified Air        
Pollution Control District

    (San Francisco)--The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(U.S. EPA) and Monterey Bay Unified APCD today announced that
Barsotti's Inc. has agreed to pay a total of $68,000 in civil
penalties to settle alleged violations of federal rules governing
the safe handling of asbestos during the renovation of the
Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) Moss Landing Power Plant, Moss
Landing, Calif.

     Barsotti's agreed to the settlement in a federal consent
decree entered in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.  The case
was brought jointly by U.S. EPA and the Monterey Bay Unified Air
Pollution Control District, which will each receive half the
penalties.

     In a civil complaint, U.S. EPA and the District alleged that
the defendant had failed to follow federal asbestos rules during
the renovation of the PG&E Moss Landing Power Plant in September
1992.  The violations involved failure to keep the asbestos-
containing material adequately wet both prior to disposal and
during the stripping operation, and failure to carefully lower
the material to the ground to prevent releases.  The removal
involved 20,800 square feet of asbestos-containing material.

     Asbestos demolition and renovation regulations are intended
to keep asbestos fibers out of the ambient air because no safe
exposure level to airborne asbestos fibers is known.  When
inhaled, asbestos can cause lung cancer and mesothelioma, a
cancer of the chest and abdominal cavity.  If not wetted down or
packaged correctly, asbestos fibers can become airborne for
considerable periods of time.

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