Sebring Parkway project is under investigation

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection is investigating the county's handling of abandoned asbestos water pipes during Phase II of the Sebring Parkway Project.

The agency is trying to find out if the county followed protocol when installing new PVC water lines and other utilities lines during the project.

According to DEP, when new water lines are installed, the old ones can be abandoned in place by filling them with cement. If they are removed, they should be wet down and placed in hazardous waste bags and sent to the landfill.

In a letter dated Sept. 29, the agency requested the county send them all correspondence, contracts and communication from everyone involved in the project.

Highlands County Engineer Ramon Gavarrette said the county is cooperating with the agency's investigation.

"We are working very closely with the DEP and we've showed them everything that we've done. There is nothing to be hidden," Gavarrette said.

The abandonment and handling of asbestos water pipes is one aspect of the agency's investigation. They are also looking into why the county failed to notify the agency on the scope of the project and seek the required permits, Randy Landers, DEP program administrator, said.

Since the project involves asbestos material, the county is required to have permits from the DEP's air program. According to the agency's records, they failed to do so.

Landers said the agency only gets involved in these projects when it involves more than 260 feet of abandoned asbestos water pipes.

Based on analysis of blueprints from the relocation of gas lines, they estimate 660 feet of abandoned asbestos water pipes.

Because asbestos is a known cancer causing agent, the Environmental Protection Agency monitors it very closely.

Most water pipes made before the 1970s have asbestos embedded in the concrete of the pipe, and as long as the cement remains intact, it is not harmful.

"If when it's squeezed, it easily crumbles, then it's friable and they're much more hazardous in that state. But precaution needs to be taken no matter what state it's in," Landers said.

Complaints led to investigation

The investigation was triggered by a complaint made by Preston Colby on Sept. 9. In the complaint, Colby stated the city of Sebring or the county's Department of Transportation removed and crushed asbestos pipes from Eucalyptus Street in Sebring.

Another complaint by former Highlands County utility and engineering employee Richard Solis was also made during that time. Solis, who was working on the project earlier this year, told the agency that he collected samples and sent them for testing to a lab in Orlando.

While those lab tests found asbestos fibers in the sample, the agency could not use them because sections of the report were blacked out by Solis.

Although the complaints have not been validated, the alleged mishandling of asbestos water pipes led DEP investigators to collect more than 20 samples of concrete debris found along the Sebring Parkway area.

Of the samples collected between September and October, all tested positive for some combination of three known asbestos fibrous minerals: amosite, chrysolite and crociodolite.

The analysis done by Dove Environmental Corp., a testing laboratory in Miami, for DEP, found up to 20 percent asbestos fibers in some samples.

Investigators are trying to determine whether those samples came from the project. At this point, the county is not confirming nor denying it.

"Some of them can be, some of them may not be. I'll let the DEP investigation speak for itself," said Gavarrette.

The issue with the county is determining how the asbestos pipes were handled, and how much of the pipes were involved, Landers said.

The agency's investigators collected samples from three different locations in Sebring, including the corner of Commerce Avenue and Highlands Avenue, Grape Fruit and Conter Avenue and Sebring Parkway.

The samples collected were pieces of concrete that investigators found on the floor of these intersections in old pipes, on the grass and in a retention pond.

Investigators are working on piecing together the county's actions in this project. So far the file on the Sebring Parkway Project is over five inches thick and growing.