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Transcript of John Patten's statement to City Council on April 13, 2004

John Patten: Before I start into this, the word 'friable' was a new word for me in the last few weeks. The word 'friable' refers to, at least with asbestos, airborne and breathable, as opposed to non-friable which is static, stays in one place, is glued into something else and is generally non hazardous. This is an important distinction. I wanted to make sure we got that clear.

I want to talk about an area of the City where there is some asbestos contamination now and I want to show you the area before we get into this.

What you are seeing here is an overhead satellite photo of an area of town. The area in green is the Union Missionary Baptist Church. Down here in the blue is Patches Restaurant . Venice Avenue runs this way [left and right underneath the photo] and this [to the left] is going to the bridge. Off to the left side [off of the photo] over there is the Railroad Station, and this is Hatchett Creek. The red area there is what I am going to be discussing. To give you an idea where we are, down here by the pointer, is John Lane's office in that building.

Routinely in this area, I am told, in the course of the last ten to twenty years, when the city has been digging up asbestos concrete pipe from the City in various places it has been brought here,  dumped, left, cut up and used for other stuff and eventually it is disposed of in one manner or another.

As recently as three to four weeks ago the Department of Transportation dug up, or rather one of their contractors dug up, something like two to three tons of asbestos concrete pipe, dumped it there [in the area in red in the photo], left it there for about 2-3 weeks. Some of it was crumbly, some of it was cut. They moved it thru town uncovered in a pick up truck and dumped it there.

Two Fridays ago, some workers that work for the city were ordered to dispose of it. What they did was put it into visquene, dumped it into a dumpster, and then Waste Management with the county was told that they had hazardous materials and could they please come down.

In this case the workers wanted to wear the HazMat suits, the hazardous materials suits. They were allowed to do so but there was a bit of a hullabaloo. The supervisor did not want them to wear the HazMat suits. In the past, they have not worn the HazMat suits, they just handled the stuff as it is.

Asbestos concrete in its solid form is non-friable. Asbestos is used in the concrete as a fibrous material to hold the concrete together and our city is filled with asbestos concrete. We use it to travel our water to our homes and we use it to take our sewage away. This is not a problem that is just endemic to Venice, this is a problem that is nationwide.

The main problem with the asbestos concrete is what do with it when you dig it up. When you cut it or break it, the asbestos fibers become friable, the fibers become breathable. If it is just sitting there you can run your hand over it, touch it, whatever, it's generally not going to hurt you, it's going to be safe. But when you cut it or break it, it becomes friable. The air around you is now filled with asbestos, so if you are cutting or breaking it, you are supposed to be wearing protective breathing equipment. You are supposed to be certified, there are educational requirements, none of which the city is meeting.

This is a valve that has been sitting back there for some time. Right here is the asbestos concrete that has been cut off.

Around the first time I was finding this, I advised some of the folks over at the Baptist Church to avoid this particular area because it had been used for the cutting and disposal of asbestos concrete pipe for a number of years. Somebody at the church contacted the water department and asked them about the asbestos. With that, a kind of panic ensued. A worker was ordered to come back here to destroy this particular piece of asbestos concrete. The worker went back there unprotected, with a sledge hammer, and beat the heck out of that [pictured piece of pipe]. There was another piece of it that was also beaten into a pulp. These, I am told, were then disposed of into a normal dumpster without any visquene what so ever to protect it.

Folks, this is unconscionable. We put that mans life at risk.

As much as I follow the EPA investigation, and as much as I have had to keep quiet about some of the things I have found out, this is singularly the worst thing I have ever seen. How dare we put our city workers lives in danger like this.

We are also putting the city in liability, as this guy had no clue of the danger he was dealing with and the health ramifications of what would happen from breathing this stuff later on down the line.

There are OSHA regulations, there are EPA regulations, there are DEP regulations, all dealing with how to deal with this stuff and how to cut it and how to remove it.

The best thing to do is just to leave it in the ground. But we are not doing that.

When I talked to John Lane, and his office is just a short distance away from here, I told him that this had been going on for ten, fifteen, twenty years. Lane didn't know anything about this or so he claims. He put Dave Adinolfi on the phone, Adinolfi did not know I was in the room listening. Lane then asked Adinolfi about this and he said,  "Oh yeah, we've had that stuff back there for two or three weeks."

I then identified myself and said that I was in the room and had heard the conversation. I am sure that Adinolfi's jaw hit the floor, it was an unfair position to put him in. Adinolfi admitted that for a number of years they had been using that area that area for asbestos concrete disposal, that they had been using that area to cut [the pipe]. He insisted that the folks were encouraged to use the HazMat uniforms, something that other witnesses dispute, that they had been discouraged from using the HazMat uniforms.

Mayor Dean Calamaras (interrupting): You will have to wrap this up now... your time is up.

Patten (to Calamaras): This is probably the most important matter I have ever brought before council.

He admitted that the place has been used for a number of years, but that they were just now getting around to thinking about getting education and certification requirements to the employees in handling this material. They have been handling this stuff for ten to fifteen years back there, just a stones throw from John Lane's office and we've never thought about getting these people certified or educating them? And all of this time they have been cutting this stuff, bashing it around, doing this without certification, without education, without knowing the danger that they are in.

Moreover, this is right next to Hatchett Creek, this is only fifteen to twenty feet away. Hatchett Creek is just to the north of it. So, any time it rains the fibers are going into the creek.

Calamaras (trying one more time): OK John. Thank you for bring this to our attention. Marty, do we have a City policy on that or if not should we be looking into that?

City Manager Marty Black: Obviously we do. When I heard Mr. Patten's issue yesterday afternoon, I spoke with Mr. Lane and asked him to prepare a report and will advise council on historical activities that have occurred at the water plant and what actions are in place as far as our operating procedure to ensure that our employees and our residents are not exposed to hazardous materials.

All photos 2004 venfl.com; thanks go out to the Unknown Usurper for typing up this transcript for venfl.com.

John Patten is the head of Web Operations for Creative Pages, and has worked in broadcasting for over 12 years. He can also be incredibly rude at times.