News Coverage
Factory handled tons of asbestos
Published February 17, 2005
A company charged with covering up the existence of deadly asbestos in ore it took from a Montana mine shipped hundreds of thousands of tons of the material to factories in Texas over three decades, including one near downtown San Antonio, according to newly released details of a federal investigation.
The federal government indicted W.R. Grace & Co. and seven of its senior employees last week, accusing them of conspiring to hide the presence of asbestos in the vermiculite mined near Libby, Mont., and obstructing the federal investigation of the situation.
More than 675,000 tons of the vermiculite made it to 24 factories in Texas from 1963 to 1992, where it was turned into insulation and other construction material, according to an analysis of federal records conducted by the Washington-based Environmental Working Group.
Vermiculite typically does not contain asbestos, but the ore in Libby was laced with the naturally occurring material, which is known to cause lung cancer and other illnesses.
The long-defunct San Antonio facility was on Blue Star Street in a heavily industrial neighborhood and operated under the names Texas Vermiculite Co. and W.R. Grace & Co. The factory, which has been closed since at least 1989, accounted for nearly 104,000 tons of the contaminated ore - trailing only facilities in Dallas and Houston among Texas factories.
"These are not in remote areas," said Richard Wiles of the Environmental Working Group. "These are the largest cities in Texas."
The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry is investigating 28 of the 236 sites around the country that used the asbestos-laden material to determine if there was any health risk posed to workers or area residents. San Antonio is not one of the areas being tested.
The agency chose the 28 sites based on the amount of ore the plant processed and on the Environmental Protection Agency's assessment of whether asbestos contamination still is present, said Barbara Anderson, an environmental health scientist with the toxic substances agency.
Officials with EPA's Region 6 office in Dallas said they were unable to quickly provide details on the San Antonio site.
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality records show the factory employed fewer than 100 people in 1988 and that it was known that tremolite asbestos was a "natural contaminant" in the material being processed.
The documents also reveal the factory "exfoliated" the ore, which Anderson said is a most dangerous process because it causes the vermiculite to "pop like popcorn" and release the asbestos fibers into the air.
The TCEQ has never investigated the site and officials there were not aware of the link to the W.R. Grace indictment, spokeswoman Adria Dawidczik said. The Metropolitan Health District also had no information on the site.
The facility, at 354 Blue Star St., is now a rundown hulk of a metal building sitting between the San Antonio River and railroad tracks.
Scott DeKruse, who helps manage the property for the Lifshutz Co., said the building is used for storage and that long-term plans are to redevelop the area into apartments and condominiums. DeKruse had no knowledge of the W.R. Grace facility.
Records as far back as 1977 show top Grace managers knew about asbestos-related lung disease among their workers but hid it from their employees and the community, according to the federal indictment.
Grace, beset by thousands of asbestos claims nationwide, filed for bankruptcy protection in 2001.
Anderson said studies already conducted on plants that used the ore have shown workers were exposed. She recommended former employees inform their doctors of the potential exposure but said the agency does not plan to search for and screen the workers for asbestos-related diseases.
"The plants had a very high worker turnover rate and it would be considerably difficult," she said.