MOLD HAZARD POSED AT SCHOOL SITE.

SUN VALLEY - Mold that has caused allergic reactions among several employees has plagued a city building for months even as the deal to sell it to Los Angeles Unified for use as a high school was being finalized, the Daily News has learned.

Department of Water and Power officials have been working for months to remove the mold, which is growing behind the walls in three stairwells in the Anthony Office Building. They insist the building, which is being sold to LAUSD for $50 million, will be cleaned up before children occupy it in July.

``We're very mindful of the health and safety of our employees and of the LAUSD people when they start moving in,'' said Hal Lindsey, DWP's director of health and safety.

``I wanted to make sure people weren't being harmed or made ill. And I'm very confident that we've done that.''

The building also has recurring problems with ant infestations, requiring repeated visits by exterminators. No problems have developed in the last month, officials said.

In addition, school district officials said they intend to install special monitors on the property because of concern over the potential for methane gas from a nearby landfill creeping closer to the building.

LAUSD officials in the real estate division said they were notified of the mold problem earlier this summer.

But Angelo Bellomo, LAUSD director of health and safety, said he only learned of the problem about two weeks ago. He intends to carefully review the documentation on the city's work and hopes to collaborate with city officials on the final tests after the work is complete.

``At the present time, the district is relying upon the seller to make the necessary upgrades,'' Bellomo said.

``We will review the documentation of those upgrades and we will review the proposed work plan for doing the follow-up testing within the structure. And then we'll want to look at those results.''

School board President Caprice Young, whose district includes the building and has championed the project to relieve overcrowding, said she had not been told there was a mold problem. She is hopeful it can be cleaned up before children are in the building.

``I'm confident that they'll take care of it,'' Young said.

The mold was first noticed in May growing behind the drywall in the building's three stairwells, a result of water leaking in through a glass atrium above the stairwells, and it stretched from the building's fourth floor down to the first floor, Lindsey said.

Employees were given an opportunity to consult with a physician, and several were diagnosed with allergic reactions to the mold. Those employees were relocated from the building as a precaution. Additional relocation is also occurring there as the department plans to vacate part of the building for the sale.

The remediation work includes removing the drywall along the stairwells, removing the mold and sealing the water leaks.

The remediation project is being done by city workers, but no estimate of the cost of their labor and materials was available.

The building has also had an occasional ant infestation problem, Lindsey said. He attributed that to employees who eat lunch at their desks and throw food into their trash cans, attracting the ants. Exterminators come on a routine basis, he said, and there have been no ant complaints for at least a month.

LAUSD intends to purchase the building for $50 million and convert part of it into a high school that will initially hold 900 students. The district will lease two-thirds of the building back to DWP, which has a water testing lab, a call center and other functions there.

The district plans to start renovating the building in November and have high school students begin class there in July.

Depending on the type and quantity, mold can cause allergic reactions such as asthma, runny nose and nasal irritation, said Dr. Philip Harber, chief of occupational and environmental medicine in UCLA's School of Medicine.

There are some molds that can also be toxic or fatal, Harber added, but DWP's test results do not indicate the presence of those molds.

Indoor mold problems have become more prevalent recently in buildings across the country, and doctors and the public have become increasingly aware of the problems they can cause.

``These things may be becoming more frequent in that we do spend more time indoors than we used to and we have more complex building systems than we used to - with sealed buildings with energy efficient recirculation,'' Harber said.

``There are more opportunities for water to collect in various places in a more complex ventilation system as are being used now.''

Several local school districts have had problems with mold and other indoor air quality problems that have reportedly made children sick.

In 1999, parents at two schools in the Saugus Union School District complained that children were getting sick because of mold in portable classrooms, although testing by health officials disputed their claims.

The concerns prompted testing by the Palmdale and Lancaster school districts after complaints from parents, and the tests found mild mold growths in classrooms at three elementary schools, although no children complained of getting sick from the mold.

Alex Robertson IV, a Woodland Hills attorney who specializes in mold cases, said he has clients who have suffered life-threatening health consequences from mold in their homes and offices, resulting in six and seven-figure judgments against builders and owners.

Awareness of mold issues starting growing in the mid-1990s, he said, when it started being described more frequently in medical journals.

Robertson handles about 1,000 mold cases now, including courthouses, schools and homes - although he is not involved in the Anthony issue - making him the busiest mold lawyer in the state.

Remediation, he said, can be effective if done properly. The procedure is similar to asbestos abatement, requiring specialized contractors and careful isolation of the affected area.

``If it's done properly, there shouldn't be any future health concerns,'' he said. ``If done improperly, it can be a nightmare, because you spread the contamination.''

DWP test results on the Anthony building indicate several types of mold were present in the building, but the most prevalent one is called cladosporium. Harber said that is a common mold, and in higher quantities it can cause symptoms such as asthma and runny noses.

Lindsey noted that the recent test results - taken after the mold-infested areas were isolated from the rest of the building - found that mold levels inside the building were relatively low. They were significantly lower than they were outdoors near the building, where trees and other plant growth contribute mold to the air.

The building also has at least one other potential health issue that concerns Bellomo, the LAUSD official.

It is located near the city's long-closed Sheldon-Arleta Landfill, and methane gas from the landfill was recently detected on the perimeter of the Anthony property, Bellomo said.

The level of gas was relatively low and far from the building, Bellomo said, and it may have been a remnant left from before some upgrade work was performed at the landfill. But it raises concerns about the effectiveness of the city's gas containment system, he said. The district will install special monitors soon on the property to make sure the gas is not getting closer, Bellomo said.

Methane is only dangerous if it is allowed to build up inside an enclosed structure, he said, and there is currently no danger of that happening. He has been asking the city to consider improving its gas containment system.

Drew Sones, assistant director of the Bureau of Sanitation, said he had some employees check the Anthony site recently in response to a Daily News call, and said they did not find any presence of methane and has not seen the test Bellomo mentioned.

He said there are extensive monitoring wells around the landfill, as well as detectors at Francis Polytechnic High School across the street from the landfill, and they have not detected any gas beyond the perimeter. He said they would be willing to install monitors at Anthony when it becomes a school as well.

CAPTION(S):

photo, map

Photo:

Department of Water and Power officials have been working to remove mold in the walls of stairwells at its office building.

John Lazar/Staff Photographer

Map:

Anthony Office Building