By Elizabethe Holland
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch
BEVERLY HILLS, Mo. — The Missouri Department of Natural Resources has accused a north St. Louis County fire district of several asbestos-related violations, and offered to settle the matter out of court with district officials for $70,000.
A letter sent Tuesday from the DNR to Elbert Walton Jr., an attorney for the Northeast Ambulance and Fire Protection District, says inspections at the district’s administration building found several violations involving the handling of asbestos and the blocking of inspectors.
The letter gave the district until July 21 to respond to the settlement offer. If that deadline is not met, the DNR said the matter would be referred to the attorney general.
Late last year, St. Louis County, state and federal authorities began investigating complaints that fire district officials had removed and disposed of tiles potentially containing asbestos from the district’s 5,488-square-foot building at 7100 Natural Bridge Road, and then kicked out inspectors looking into the allegations.
The DNR sent in June then-district President Joe Washington a list of alleged violations that, among other things, accuses the district of failing to:
- Allow access for an inspection.
- Use a registered asbestos abatement contractor to remove asbestos.
- Inspect for asbestos-containing materials before renovation or demolition.
- Comply with asbestos emission-control procedures and waste-disposal standards.
Walton responded with a letter dated June 30 that said the district “generally denies each and every allegation,” that air-quality studies at the building revealed no asbestos fibers in the building’s air, and that the district “has a Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches of its administrative offices.”
A response Wednesday to Walton from Steven Feeler, chief of enforcement for the DNR’s air pollution control program, called Walton’s arguments “without merit.”
In another matter, the attorney general and the state auditor sued the district and its board last week, accusing the district of violating the Sunshine Law and ignoring a subpoena demanding financial and other audit-related records. The suit claims that the district and board members Washington and Robert Edwards have improperly banned residents from meetings.
The suit goes on to name the district and all three of its board members for not providing documents to state Auditor Susan Montee, as required by a June 1 subpoena. Montee’s office is expected to release the district’s audit soon.
In the meantime, Washington and Edwards have ousted director Bob Lee from the board. And Washington, on Tuesday night, resigned his seat so he could take the job of district fire chief.
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