Company removes
asbestos as good deed
Workers wearing paper jumpsuits, hard hats and respirators removed several pieces of asbestos-containing pipe yesterday alongside Kapaa Quarry Road in Kailua.
Carroll Cox, president of EnviroWatch, had reported the presence of pipes made of concrete and asbestos on the makai side of the road to the state Department of Health in mid-June.
Cox said yesterday he was disappointed that the state had not removed the pipes, and asked Mike Leary, of Island Demolition, if he would do the job as a public service.
Two Island Demolition workers trained in asbestos took about 30 minutes to carefully remove several 4-inch-diameter pipes.
The pipes were put into thick plastic bags, along with several shovelfuls of dirt where they had been lying on the ground.
"If broken, it could release asbestos fibers," Leary said of the pipes, which he said were frequently used for hot water in industrial settings in the 1940s through 1960s.
Inhaling asbestos fibers is a cancer and lung disease risk.
Handling asbestos is regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and dumping it along a roadside is a crime, said Leary.
He said his company donated what would have been a $1,200-to-$1,500 job "because it's the right thing to do."
Leary said his company will dispose of the pipe properly at the asbestos-handling area of the island's only permitted construction demolition landfill.
He estimated that his company deals with asbestos removal on about one-third of the demolition jobs it handles.
"We don't fool around with it," he said.
Asbestos is not considered a hazardous waste, so it normally would not be handled by the Health Department's Hazard Evaluation and Emergency Response office, said department spokeswoman Janice Okubo. However, that office did check out the pipes and referred them to the department's Solid and Hazardous Waste Branch, she said.
Since July 11 that branch has been "working with the city and county to coordinate a pickup of the pipe," Okubo said.
