Coastal Demolition accused of demolition without permit at Lobeco plant.
Asbestos remains at the site of a former Lobeco industrial plant, but it poses no public-health or environmental threat, according to a state health and environmental agency.
The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control findings from earlier this month came after environmental concerns prompted Beaufort County officials to halt demolition of the former chemical plant in January.
Some residents had also expressed concern that recent demolition activities disturbed asbestos, DHEC spokesman Adam Myrick said.
“That’s not the case,” Myrick said. “We wanted to get this word out to the community.”Coastal Demolition and Construction of Tampa, Fla., was issued a stop-work order Jan. 18 after Beaufort County officials discovered the company, which purchased the site in 2009, was tearing down the ArrMaz Custom Chemical plant building on John Meeks Way without the necessary permits, county administrator Gary Kubic said at the time.
In June 2009, DHEC staff found that Coastal Demolition and Construction had demolished and salvaged pieces of the site without a proper license, according to the community update.
DHEC then found in November 2009 that floor tile and adhesive containing asbestos had been improperly removed from a structure and stored on site, according to the community update. In December of that year, DHEC authorized the broken floor tile and adhesive to be removed to a permitted landfill in December 2009.
Several other structures were demolished on the site between March and June 2010. In February, DHEC visited the property and found the only asbestos still remaining on-site was in pipe insulation from a former maintenance shop and boiler house. The structure is still intact.
Coastal Demolition has applied for demolition permits for the remainder of the tank farm and reactor building.
Those permits have not been issued, Myrick said.
“We are awaiting the additional asbestos sampling in the tank farm area,” Myrick said in an e-mail. “Also, if Coastal plans to remove the asbestos pipe insulation on the ground in the boiler house, they will need a permit and licensed abatement contractor for that too.”
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