Mira Costa’s administration closed the library and three adjacent classrooms on Aug. 16 to investigate the illegal removal, handling and disposal of asbestos in the process of converting the library storage room to a functional workspace.
A sub-contractor damaged tile containing 5-6% Chrysotile asbestos in the storage room after using a power grinder to level the tile surface for the installment of new carpeting. At the time of the incident, students and parent volunteers were present in the library for registration and were eventually cleared from the area when library staff noticed the dangerous work being performed after approximately four hours.
“The incident led to a lot of panic throughout the freshman class because we had registration that day,” freshman Eve Macleod said. “I also wasn’t able to get the necessary textbooks.”
Environmental Network Corporation Inc. generated a new report earlier in the summer per the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act, which requires local educational agencies to inspect their school buildings for building materials with asbestos, and confirmed that the library does have asbestos. Airborne asbestos fibers can become lodged in the lungs of those who are exposed, which can cause the development of fatal conditions, including Mesothelioma, lung cancer and other serious lung conditions in the decades that follow, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.
“The fact that the district hired a construction company that isn’t asbestos certified, knowing that there was asbestos based on these recent AHERA reports, shows total disregard for the health of anyone who goes into that library,” French teacher Lauri Resnikoff said. “It’s the law when you know there’s asbestos to have it properly abated, so blatantly disregarding the law is disrespectful, and it puts people’s health in danger.”
Following the investigation, South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) issued notices to the Manhattan Beach Unified School District and the two hired contractors, KYA Group and Progressive Surface Solutions, for 27 violations each of SCAQMD and federal asbestos regulations. Legal penalties for improper asbestos removal include up to five years of jail time and fines of up to $250,000.
MBUSD representatives could not be reached for comment regarding the violations.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited Miller Environmental, a contractor hired by MBUSD in 2014, for a general violation of Class II asbestos work, which includes the removal of contaminated wallboard, floor tile and roofing. The citation explicitly warned against the sanding of asbestos-containing flooring.
“I am worried that the administrators who are responsible for maintaining the asbestos that we know is here aren’t adequately following the rules and procedures and protocols that are in place,” Manhattan Beach Unified Teachers Association President Shawn Chen said. “It is not very confidence-inducing seeing that the only reason they’re following the rules right now is because there have been multiple complaints against them.”
Upon testing for asbestos in the library workroom, ENCORP found that the shelving in the storage room contained lead paint. Contractors uncovered the lead when they began work on the floors, and the shelving has since been removed, Costa Principal Dr. Ben Dale said. Though
Dale and Superintendent Dr. Mike Matthews collectively sent five emails to Costa parents addressing the asbestos in the library, none mentioned the lead contamination.
Dale and Matthews declined to comment on the failure to mention lead in the emails.
A properly licensed and registered asbestos abatement contractor will perform the Procedure 5 cleanup that the library must undergo for abatement purposes. In addition to the asbestos-contaminated building materials, any porous materials present in the library workroom, hallway, south entrance and librarian’s office, at the time of disturbance, including books and rolls of new carpeting, will be removed and disposed of as asbestos waste.
AQMD Inspector Michael Haynes requested that the restrooms and janitor’s closet in the workroom hallway also be decontaminated in case the contractors entered these areas during or following their work.
“Everyone should be concerned about their health if the clean up procedure involves about
a hundred pages,” Resnikoff said. “That’s a really big deal, and it is very, very costly.”
The district is taking aggressive actions to remediate the storage room and surrounding areas, Matthews said in an email to district parents. The district has not disclosed the projected date for the reopening of the library.
“We want to make sure everything that poses a concern gets removed,” Dale said.
The demolition of the Fisher Gymnasium is set to take place in November or December of this year. MBUSD plans to hire a company to abate any potentially dangerous materials and notify AQMD about the plans for abatement before beginning any work, Matthews said in his Sept. 11 district newsletter.
“Any time you knock down a building, you have to abate it first, which was always part of the plan with the gym,” Dale said.
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