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Mesothelioma News | 2008
Work Temporarily Halted at Mirant Over Asbestos Exposure
The work on new pollution controls at the Charles County Mirant Morgantown Generating Plant was stopped Tuesday because of concerns that asbestos might have been disturbed at the construction site.
Misty Allen, a Mirant spokeswoman said "The work to implement a Selective Catalytic Reduction System, a pollution control technology, was stopped temporarily due to a potential concern of asbestos in the construction work area."
She further reported, "Once equipment was brought in to do the testing and analysis, all test results came back favorable and well below limits that would have triggered concern or required additional action."
The SCR system construction, which collects nitrous oxide pollutants from the coal-fired plant's flue gas emissions, started again on Friday, Allen commented.
The limit for exposure over an eight-hour work shift set by Federal occupational safety standards is 0.1 fiber per cubic centimeter of air. Lung damage and disease have been linked to exposure to asbestos.
The asbestos at the Morgantown plant was in the insulation of an industrial fan that blows emissions out of the stacks. Allen commented that the area around the asbestos was marked and had a barrier that a contract worker broke through. This disturbed the asbestos. The contract workers were cleared from the area and a third-party asbestos removal contractor was brought in on Wednesday she said.
In a statement, Allen said, Mirant is reviewing whether proper procedures were followed.
Some of the almost 200 contracted workers, who have been working at the plant for three weeks, however, said they wanted more information.
One worker from Kentucky said, "Although I don't think it was a big contamination, it could be," and added that workers told supervisors twice, on different days, that the barrier had been disrupted before testing was performed. He said, "Somebody needs to complain because people go home to families after work."
Rhonda Wardlaw, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Occupational Safety and Health division with the state labor department said that an official complaint has been filed with the agency. Another West Virginia contract worker said he knew that the air tested positive for asbestos, but that no one could tell workers the severity of the situation or when they could go back to work.
He said Wednesday, "It happened over the past two days." Although he and his colleagues went to work, they were told to go home. He said he that despite not working he was getting paid, but he was concerned about public laundry use by co-workers.
The worker said, "Asbestos ain't nothing to play with." He and others who commented feared job repercussions and asked not to be named.
Mirant was fined $175,000 this month for violating emissions limits. They own three coal-burning plants in Maryland. According to a consent decree filed in the county's Circuit Court, the Atlanta-based company must also donate $75,000 to reduce pollution from Prince George's County school buses.
