A recent land deal, whose price tag was a point of great controversy in recent local elections, has come under further scrutiny because asbestos pipes were discovered underneath the land.
The south Florida town of Davie paid $12.5 million for land on which town board members planned to build a park and possibly a water plant. A portion of the site also contained a former mobile home community.
The town board has come under intense criticism because the land was purchased without undergoing thorough environmental testing and asbestos pipes have since been found. Most pipes run under streets and sidewalks. If the pipes were taken into account, the town would have been able to purchase the land for a lower price.
Administrators claim they had no knowledge of the hazardous pipes. A Phase I environmental study was conducted on the site, which produced one line in the 186 page report mentioning the existence of the pipes: “The utility piping beneath the site is asbestos containing.” A more rigorous Phase II study would surely have highlighted the hazardous problem and led to environmental testing.
Many parents are not willing to let their children risk asbestos exposure at the park even though some people still claim the pipes would be safe if left undisturbed. If they became exposed and/or damaged, people nearby could inhale the dust and face a greater risk of developing asbestosis or mesothelioma later in life.
Estimates to remove the pipes range from $26,000 to over $200,000.
“As long as they’re there, the danger is lurking,” Brent Kynoch, managing director of the Environmental Information Association in Chevy Chase, Md. told The South Florida Sentinel.
“The danger comes 30 years from now when people forget they’re there. One day someone is digging to put in a new jungle gym, and they get a face full of asbestos. The prudent thing would be to pull them out of the ground and get rid of them.”
