Asbestos at 202 Illinois Ave
Shortly after the Council Valley Market burned on October 7 of last year an asbestos inspection was completed. This inspection identified asbestos as being present in the debris pile towards the back of the building.
Sean Duncan, owner of Duncan Dirt Works, was awarded the contract by the city for demoing the remains of 202 Illinois Ave. After the award of the contract he was able to determine that there is enough asbestos present to trigger notifying the EPA of the amount of asbestos, his plan for removing it safely and when the work will happen. This also involves a 10 business day wait before this work can start.
How much asbestos remains in the building? Duncan told me he is confident it’s a small area of nonfriable material towards the back of the building. Nonfriable means the material won’t crumble to dust and get airborne when handled by hand. On the form that his company submitted to the EPA he stated that it is about 360 square feet of material that will have to be removed in accordance with regulations. According to the EPA’s website, amounts of asbestos containing material of this type over 160 square feet trigger this notification requirement. Duncan expects this to be a one day job.
According to Emanuel Ziolkowski with the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, these notifications are customary and routine when dealing with re-modellings or demolitions.
When I spoke with Duncan he wanted to get this information out so that people know how little asbestos remains in the building and that it will be mitigated properly. Duncan is current with his asbestos abatement training - Idaho does not have a requirement for certification for this work but there are Federal requirements.
Duncan plans on starting this asbestos removal on August 1.
