Public Employee Press

Asbestos, lead, PCBs
Workers face toxins at DEP plant

By JANE LaTOUR

If an “Outrageous Misconduct” award were given for callous disregard of workers’ lives, the city Dept. of Environmental Protection would be a top contender, right up there with West Virginia mine owners and the federal Environmental Protection Agency for its pronouncements about air quality at Ground Zero.

The mine and EPA foul-ups generated heavy media coverage, but the latest malfeasance at the local agency charged with protecting the public from toxic hazards has gone unreported until now.

DEP earned its spot on the short list for sending employees into a highly contaminated site with no protective gear.

On the morning of Nov. 29, sparks from two welders working for a sub-contractor set off a fire at the Bowery Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant in Astoria. After two separate in-house attempts to douse the fire failed, Firefighters arrived and used foam to quench the flames.

The Fire Dept. report noted that the fire was in an oil pit and the oil was under pressure from a supply pipe in the boiler room.

When the Fire Dept. left, DEP sent in its Hazardous Materials unit to assess the situation.

Proper procedures ignored
Most of the employees at Bowery Bay are members of DC 37’s Local 1320, Sewage Treatment Workers and Senior STWs. As Local 1320 President James Tucciarelli explained, “The Haz Mat unit made the determination to okay going back in and to send our employees in without any Personal Protective Equipment.”

Since the unit never wrote the required Hazardous Materials Report, exactly who gave workers the “all clear” to enter the area is unclear. What is clear is that, immediately after the fire and for the following three days, workers were directed to re-start equipment and clean up after the fire without the proper Personal Protective Equipment. Without full knowledge of the toxic substances that contaminate the area, DEP management failed to protect the employees.

How dangerous is the fire site? After testing the area for toxic contamination, DEP has now sealed off the site with sheets of plastic. Access to the area is only on a voluntary basis by workers wearing head-to-toe protective suits and half-face respirators.

“This is the first real emergency since the agency came under the control of the federal monitor,” said Tucciarelli. “The DEP’s Haz Mat unit is supposed to be a First Responder. We really worry about what the effect would be if there was some catastrophe in New York City or some toxic spill and Haz Mat provided the analysis and gave an all-clear. God help us,” he said.

In September 2000, after the contaminants mercury, lead, and PCBs entered the water, a court ruling put DEP’s freshwater supply system under control of a federal monitor. In mid-February, the consent decree was extended to the agency’s Bureau of Wastewater Treatment.

DEP management says that the reporting requirements developed under the decree will be put in place at Bowery Bay and its 13 other wastewater plants.

“It shouldn’t take emergencies like this to push them into doing the right thing,” said Guille Mejia, principal program coordinator for DC 37’s Safety and Health Dept.

“Many issues are still open,” Ms. Mejia explained. “One is what criteria should determine if re-occupying the contaminated area is safe.” The union opposes using the EPA’s WTC Indoor Environmental Assessment guidelines, because they were developed for residential buildings in a specific area around the World Trade Center.

In fact, the EPA has no jurisdiction over occupational exposures. The Public Employee Safety and Health Bureau of the state Labor Dept. is responsible for protecting city employees. “We want DEP to get together with PESH and discuss their options,” said Mejia.

Other issues include management’s reluctance to provide the workers with a written record of their exposure. Haggling over testing and medical monitoring has also taken up precious time.

While DEP stalls, the workers are left to worry. Local 1320 member Michael Campbell, who has worked at the Bowery Bay plant for 14 years, agonizes over the long-term effects of the exposures. “They’re not being forthright,” he said. “It’s clear that they just don’t care about us!”

According to Shop Steward Joseph Costantino, in the wake of the fire, contamination has spread throughout the facility. “We used fans to ventilate the building after the fire, and then we took them back to our tool room,” he explained. “We tracked soot into the locker room. Management knows what all the contaminants are — PCBs, lead, asbestos, heavy metals, mercury and arsenic. A lot of my men were working in there right after the fire,” said Costantino.