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June 20, 2006.
OSC Dan Heister and START-3 attended a kick-off meeting with Alpine Abatement (Jack Billings and Casey Lewis) and building representative Greg Nystrom to discuss upcoming abatement and schedule for the different sections of the buildings. Alpine began to mobilize equipment and supplies to the site.
Week of June 26, 2006
OSC Dave Rees and START-3 were on site to observe the work. OSC and START-3 attended a meeting with Alpine and building representatives (Greg Nystrom and Walt Pellet III) to discuss the abatement project and schedule.
Alpine continued to mobilize to the site. Alpine began to clear out remaining debris and trash from the SW quadrant (the storage space). The debris was not asbestos-containing material (ACM), and Alpine’s workers cleaned it (combination of washing and vacuuming with HEPA filters) before throwing it into a non-ACM waste container. The wash water was filtered, and the water and HEPA filters were disposed of as ACM waste.
On June 28, OSCs Rees and Heister and START-3 attended a meeting with the Alpine, Greg Nystrom, and the tenants of the wedding business quadrant to discuss the abatement schedule and their specific logistical requirements.
Week of July 3, 2006
The project was suspended on July 3 and July 4 for the holiday. Beginning July 5th, Alpine continued to clear debris from the SW quadrant and began to construct critical barriers and entry / egress airlocks for the abatement work area. Alpine also constructed a secure exhaust port for the negative air unit to provide a negative pressure environment in the working area.
Week of July 10, 2006
Alpine completed the preparation of the critical barriers for the SW quadrant and established a regulated area under negative pressure. Alpine began to abate ACM (vermiculite insulation, plaster walls and ceiling, and floor tile/mastic) in the built-up office area inside the larger warehouse space. As Alpine performed the abatement, they also demolished most of the office structure. Alpine also mobilized the VecLoader to the site. The VecLoader is a mobile vacuum system that Alpine is using to vacuum dust and vermiculite from the building. Alpine set-up the VecLoader and performed some start-up runs with it.
Week of July 17, 2006
Alpine continued to use the VecLoader to vacuum the floors, walls, and beams of the interior of the SW quadrant.
Week of July 24, 2006
Alpine completed abatement and final cleaning inside the SW quadrant. OSC Heister and START-3 performed a visual inspection with the Alpine supervisor, and they agreed that the work space appeared to be clean. On July 27, Paulsen Environmental (Alpine’s air sampling subcontractor) set-up air sampling equipment to collect clearance samples inside and outside (background) the work space. START-3 also collected confirmation samples at two of the inside sample locations. The clearance samples were collected using aggressive sampling techniques, including the use of box fans set-up throughout the work space and a leaf blower. Prior to collecting the samples, Paulsen used the leaf blower to agitate the air inside the space along all walls and the floor. In a couple of locations, the leaf blower disturbed some dust inside cracks in the walls that had not been cleaned before. The air samples were collected overnight and were submitted to the laboratory for rush-turnaround transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyses by ISO Method 10312.
Week of July 31, 2006
Alpine / Paulsen received preliminary results of clearance sampling, including two inside samples. The results of the inside samples indicated elevated counts of asbestos fibers, and Alpine / Paulsen determined that the clearance testing would fail inside the SW quadrant, using the AHERA Z-test method. Alpine / Paulsen suspended TEM analyses on the remaining samples. Alpine discussed the results with OSC Heister and START-3. Two theories for the presence of asbestos fibers on the work space samples were the missed pockets of dust inside cracks in the wall, and the fact that the north wall of the SW quadrant borders the crawl space, which could have allowed asbestos-contaminated make-up air to enter the work space. Alpine re-cleaned the SW quadrant, but EPA and Alpine decided that a second round of clearance testing should not be performed until after the crawl space has been abated.
Alpine began to prepare for the abatement of the crawl space underneath the NW quadrant. They moved the decon trailer, negative air machine, and the VecLoader to the exterior perimeter of the crawl space and began to erect critical barriers.
Week of August 7, 2006
Alpine completed set-up work for abatement of the crawl space. As a part of the set-up, Alpine cleared a storage room in the SE corner of the NW quadrant (wedding planner) which was incorporated into the crawl space work area. Access from this SE room to the crawl space was obtained through a trap door in the floor. Alpine is using this room and trap door to provide make-up air to the crawl space; to allow an alternate egress to the workers; and to load out bags of waste and debris.
After set-up was complete, Alpine began to use the VecLoader to remove the piles of vermiculite inside the crawl space. While vacuuming vermiculite, Alpine encountered piles of a different material named “Monokote”, which is a spray-applied product produced by W.R. Grace. The Monokote apparently has some cementitious properties, and when combined with water inside the VecLoader, it hardened and clogged the VecLoader. At one point, the VecLoader became top heavy and tipped over. While Alpine cleaned the inside of the VecLoader, the abatement workers uses shovels to place the Monokote inside asbestos waste bags.
During this week, personnel from EPA’s Portland office and Seattle’s Office of Environmental Assessment (OEA) arrived to tour the site. Jed Januch from OEA collected ambient air samples from a variety of locations throughout the site.
Week of August 14, 2006
Alpine continued to use the VecLoader to remove vermiculite from the crawl space. The work was slowed down by the fact that the Hillsoboro landfill, which is the closest landfill that can accept asbestos waste, only accepts asbestos waste on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Alpine has two trailers that are set-up to hold the large VecLoader bags. Once the bags are filled inside the two trailers, Alpine has to wait until Tuesday or Thursday to deliver the waste to the landfill. While waiting to deliver the waste to the landfill, Alpine can not use the VecLoader because they do not have a place to store the waste. During these times when the VecLoader could not be operated, asbestos workers continued to work by manually bagging waste in the crawl space. By the end of the week, the VecLoader clogged again with Monokote.
Week of August 21, 2006
Alpine re-cleaned the VecLoader and continued to abate the crawl space using a combination of the VecLoader and manual bagging. Alpine also continued to deliver the two trailers with the full VecLoader bags to the landfill on Tuesday and Thursday.
Week of August 26, 2006
Alpine continued to abate the crawl space using a combination of the VecLoader and manual bagging. Alpine hired a subcontractor to provide a driver and roll-off box for the bagged asbestos waste from the VecLoader, which allowed Alpine to use the VecLoader more frequently.
Week of September 4
Alpine finished the large piles of vermiculite / Monokote and began to use the VecLoader to clean the beams and floor joists of the crawl space. Currently, final inspection and clearance testing of the crawl space are planned for next week.
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