Work being conducted on pollution controls at Mirant’s Morgantown Generating Plant in Washington was recently halted due to asbestos problems.

Health officials fear that asbestos could have been disturbed in the construction area when work was being done at the site.

Asbestos Found

The construction that’s used to install the pollution control technology was reportedly stopped as workers became increasingly concerned about asbestos being in the area.

“Once we brought in the equipment to do the testing and analysis, all the testing results came back favorable,” said Misty Allen, a spokeswoman for Mirant.

Although the tests found that the amount of asbestos was below the legal limit permitted, Mirant still didn’t want to take any chances with their workers.

Health Hazard at Morgantown Plant

The asbestos found at the plant was reportedly in the insulation of a fan that blows emissions from the stacks.

Allen says that the area around the asbestos was marked and a barrier was built to prevent workers from getting near the contaminated part of the plant.

“I don’t think was a big contamination, but it could be,” explained one of the workers, who informed the supervisors twice when the barrier around the asbestos had been disrupted. “Somebody needs to complain because people go home to their families after work.”

(Source: Washington Post)

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