Missouri School District Aims to Remove all School Asbestos
The town of Nevada, Missouri made a decision ten years ago to remove all dangerous asbestos from its schools and seven years into the project, they are nearing the end of their endeavor.
According to an article in the local Nevada Daily Mail, the Nevada R-5 School District reports that with this summer’s projects coming to an end, most of the district’s buildings have been abated and just pockets of asbestos remain in a few buildings.
“We’ve been working on a 10-year plan since 1999 on a prioritized list of projects,” said Kristi Peterson, the district’s assistant superintendent. “It was a highly specialized process to make the list and we had to consider many different criteria to determine what projects should be undertaken first.”
Peterson said the district manages their asbestos through strict guidelines offered by the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act. “All areas that have asbestos have to be inspected every six months, it’s called the six month surveillance,” Peterson explained. “We’re fortunate that we do all of our management through an environmental management company out of Kansas City. Eight years ago we aligned with them; we were one of the first to do so. They provide inspectors to insure that we are in compliance.”
Peterson said the district’s custodial staff is all trained in the handling of asbestos and that the maintenance supervisor is a trained asbestos inspector. She added that the project has taken a lot of resources over the years.
“It’s been a huge undertaking,” Peterson said. “The majority has been floor tiles but we’re about to wrap it up. It’s been an enormous expense and responsibility. The moment we can drop that off it will be a huge savings to the district.”
