Albany to clean asbestos-laden trash
Crews made the discovery while clearing Little League field of garbage and debris
The city has hired an environmental cleanup firm after a city councilwoman pushed Mayor Kathy Sheehan’s administration to deal with illegally dumped asbestos behind a Woodlawn neighborhood baseball field.
The issue arose last fall after Councilwoman Judy Doesschate asked the city to clear overgrowth behind the National Little League field along Providence Avenue. Trees and brush from a small ravine bordering the park had overtaken the area.
After the brush was cleared, crews discovered the area covered in garbage bags, trash, concrete and other debris, including a television. City crews removed at least six truckloads of garbage from the area.
Meanwhile Doesschate and others in the neighborhood tried to grow grass over the cleared area and make other improvements to the park.
The problem is what was left behind, including construction garbage bags that appeared to contain broken floor tiles that she suspected contained asbestos,
Doesschate said. Crews bulldozed the remaining garbage and partially covered it, rather than removing them, she said. The city also left behind downed trees and other debris she wanted out of the park.
Julie Elison, a neighborhood resident who has brought her grandchildren to the park, said Doesschate’s work with the park has made a significant improvement. The playground sees a steady flow of a children, including some from a nearby private elementary school, she said.
“There were huge overgrown areas impinging on the playground,” she said. “She has cajoled the city to clear it and planted grass. There seems to be an area they’re refusing to touch.”
Doesschate said she became frustrated with the lack of action. In May, she took a small sample from the area and sent it to an environmental firm. The sample came back positive for chrysotile asbestos, the most common form of asbestos and a human carcinogen.
In a June 8 letter to Sheehan’s office, Doesschate wrote that she had tried to bring the issue to the city’s attention before taking that step.
“This situation is hazardous to our children and residents, and simply unacceptable,” she wrote.
“If I, or any other property owner in the city of Albany maintained their property in this manner, we would fully expect neighbors to complain and for the city to cite the owners for numerous violations of the city code — even if the conditions were caused in part by other people or natural causes.”
Sheehan’s chief of staff David Galin said the city took immediate action after seeing the positive test result.
“The day after we received the letter, we reached out to a firm that specializes in asbestos,” he said.
Galin said the company cordoned off the area behind the left field fence and will bring in another firm to clean the asbestos from the area in the near future.
Galin credited the work Doesschate herself put into the park to help revitalize it. The city has also made significant improvements to the rest of the park, he said.
“It’s fair to say DGS has put in hundreds of man hours into that park,” he said.
But a day after the city received Doesschate’ letter, DGS employees reportedly saw her in the impacted area digging. The city’s corporation counsel sent her a cease and desist notice.
“Any such further actions therefore risk creating a hazard not only to your own health, but to the community at large — a hazard that does not exist to the same extent so long as any asbestos that may be present remains buried in the ground,” it reads.
Doesschate denied she was digging, saying she and her husband had been trying to drag out larger items from the ravine that DGS employees left behind.