Wednesday, April 20, 2005

W.R. Grace: Curiouser and Curiouser

I'm not sure what to make of this. Any conspiracy theorists out there?

At the beginning of March I reported on how the crimes of asbestos polluter W.R. Grace had spread far from Libby, Montana, all the way to (among many other places), Hamilton, New Jersey. Grace had an attic insulation plant there that contaminated the area with asbestos. The company claimed to have cleaned up the site in the mid-1990's, but an EPA investigation in 2000 and 2001 showed concentrations of asbestos as high as 40 percent in some surface soils on the property. Over 9,000 tons of contaminated soil had to be removed from the site, which had since been purchased by Accurate Document Destruction Inc.

Then last week, New Jersey state lawmakers announced an inquiry into Grace's contamination of the site. Hearings were planned for May 5. Last month, the NJ Department of Health and Senior Services reported that "that neighboring businesses and residents and employees of the building's current occupant, Accurate Document Destruction Inc., may have been exposed. "

Yesterday, the former Grace building, now housing Accurate Document Destruction, Inc., burned to the ground.

.