Oakridge fined $9,600 for mishandling asbestos.

Byline: Karen McCowan The Register-Guard

OAKRIDGE - The agency that looks after Lane County's air fined the City of Oakridge $9,600 this week for improperly handling asbestos-containing debris from mobile homes and other structures it demolished this spring after buying a parcel of land at the north end of town.

"We were wrong," City Administrator Gordon Zimmerman said Thursday after receiving notice of the civil penalty.

He said the city erred by relying on the property seller's signed statement that "there are no hazardous materials located in or upon the property."

"We naively believed and acted on that," Zimmerman said.

Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral comprised of long, thin fibers used in insulation and other building materials. When inhaled it can cause lung cancer and other serious illnesses.

Part of the city's fine was a $2,400 penalty for what the Lane Regional Air Protection Agency called a major violation: failing to conduct an asbestos survey prior to demolishing the buildings.

Oakridge also was assessed $3,600 for a moderate violation - allowing uncertified contractors to conduct an asbestos abatement project. And it was fined an additional $3,600 for a moderate violation in allowing the "open accumulation and storage of asbestos-containing waste material at an unauthorized waste disposal site."

The city has until Oct. 5 to pay or appeal the $9,600 fine. The Oakridge City Council is not scheduled to discuss its response until its regular meeting Thursday. But Zimmerman said he will recommend that the city appeal and seek to apply some of its fine to its ongoing air pollution abatement project, the Warm Homes Project. That project assists low-income residents in repairing or replacing inefficient woodstoves blamed for winter particulate contamination.

The LRAPA investigation began April 5, when the agency received a complaint regarding asbestos and open burning on the property. The city had taken possession of the property three days earlier from longtime owner Ralph Hogrefe.

Zimmerman said the city purchased the property- just under an acre of land covered by at least two dilapidated mobile homes, abandoned chicken coops and other debris - to solve two problems.

The unkempt property at 48685 Highway 58 had long been the subject of unresolved nuisance abatement complaints, he said. "I'm not kidding - this looked like the Appalachian South."

It is also located just east of a planned new intersection at Highway 68 and Fish Hatchery Road. City, county and state officials, long worried about the safety of the current acute angle of that intersection, are collaborating to realign the intersection so Fish Hatchery Road meets Highway 58 at a 90 degree angle. The city's portion of that tab will be $60,000. Oakridge leaders hope they can recoup some or all of that expense by zoning the former Hogrefe property commercial, connecting it to the city's water and sewer systems, and selling it.

Oakridge paid $40,000 for the property in what proved to be a contentious and bizarre transaction.

Soon after the city took possession, an attorney for Oakridge residents Don and Audrey Hadley came to a city council meeting to charge that the city had torn down manufactured homes containing "friable asbestos" and moved the debris to a burn pile on property within the city's industrial park.

LRAPA Director Merlyn Hough said friable asbestos is loosened, so it can be released into the air and inhaled into the lungs. Non-friable asbestos, by contrast, is contained, "such as in an intact floor tile."

Mobile homes typically contain many sources of asbestos, including roofing, caulking materials and floor tiles, he said.

Attorney George Derr also charged that Zimmerman and Police Chief Louis Gomez had undermined the Hadley's "economic opportunity to buy a piece of property."

George Derr told the council that Don Hadley had told Gomez that he "had a deal" with Hogrefe to buy the property for $38,000. Derr said Gomez told Zimmerman, who then "went down in the name of the city and bought it for $40,000, $2,000 more."

Zimmerman said this week, however, that Hogrefe came to him at City Hall last fall, offering to sell the land to Oakridge for $60,000. After researching other land sales in the area, the city made a counter-offer of $40,000, which Hogrefe accepted, Zimmerman said. Later, the city heard from yet another buyer who claimed to have a purchase agreement - and paid earnest money - for the property.

Derr has since filed a notice warning the city of the Hadleys' intent to sue it over the matter.

"I didn't know about any other sales agreements at the time we signed our agreement with Mr. Hogrefe," Zimmerman said. "They should be suing Mr. Hogrefe."

He noted however, that he is unlikely to recommend that the city try to recoup its LRAPA fine by suing Hogrefe for falsely representing that there was no asbestos on the property.

"You can't get blood out of a turnip," he said.

Zimmerman added that Hogrefe no longer lives in Oakridge and city officials don't know his location. The Register-Guard was unable to locate him for comment.

Hough said Oakridge was "very responsive" once it was notified that an LRAPA investigation showed that samples from the industrial park demolition pile had tested positive for asbestos.

"They were very responsible in correcting it," he said, noting that the city then had to dispose of the entire pile of debris at the industrial park as if it were all asbestos-containing material.

"Their costs ended up being substantially more" than if they'd had an abatement specialist remove only the asbestos-containing material before the buildings were demolished.

Zimmerman said Thursday that Oakridge has paid certified specialists $17,000 to contain and dispose of all the industrial park pile.

Hough said Oakridge is not the first public entity fined for asbestos violations.

"School districts, in particular, have had their problems with asbestos handling," he said.

"Any time you're renovating or removing old buildings, there's the potential for contamination."