• Asbestos appeal denied

The Allegheny County Health Department has denied a penalty-reduction appeal by Ramesh and Vikas Jain, who had claimed they couldn’t pay a $1.47 million fine for alleged asbestos removal violations at their multimillion-dollar redevelopment project on the former Westinghouse research and technology park property in Churchill.

Department hearing officer Max Slater issued the decision in the Jains’ “ability to pay hearing” Wednesday and ordered them to pay the full fine or post a bond for that amount within 30 days.

The Jains could appeal to Allegheny County Common Pleas Court, Mr. Slater said, a move that would delay scheduling the Jains’ appeal to the health department on the merits of the case. The state Air Pollution Control Act requires prepayment of fines before an appeal on the merits of the case can move forward.

The penalty amount — the largest asbestos-related fine ever assessed by the health department — was levied in a June 2 emergency order that alleged more than 130,000 square feet of asbestos floor tile and pipe insulation was illegally removed from multiple buildings on the 135acre former Westinghouse property.

The father-and-son developers, who live in Mt. Lebanon, have denied the charges. Attorney Maurice Nernberg, who represented the Jains, did not return calls Wednesday seeking comment on the decision.

According to the enforcement order, the Jains did not have the required permits to handle or remove asbestos, workers were not provided with protective clothing or breathing masks when grinding and handling the material, and no precautions were taken to prevent asbestos dust, which can cause cancer, from becoming airborne outside the buildings. In addition, there is no record that the asbestos-containing material was disposed of in an approved landfill.

Mr. Slater, in his 15-page decision, took note of the Jains’ assets of between $13 million and $14 million, personal tax returns and tax returns for nine companies they own. During two days of hearings on the appeal in August, Dean DeLuca, the health department’s air quality enforcement chief, said the most conservative estimate of what the Jains could afford to pay in a civil penalty was about $1.23 million. Mr. Slater stated in the decision that “the ACHD made a strong argument that appellants are able to pay the civil penalty.”

In October, Mr. Slater dismissed charges the health departmenthad filed against Raymond Sida, an employee of the Jains, who testified they tried to set him up to be the “fall guy” for the illegal asbestos-removal operation. Mr. Sida said the Jains misrepresented the asbestoscontaining material as safe to handle to a crew of Guatemalan nationals who workedat the site.

Subsequent county testing found some of the material contained up to 65 percent amosite asbestos, which has been found to cause cancer.