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Cambria base is raided for asbestos

Aug 30, 2007 | Sarah Arnquist | San Luis Tribune

Local air pollution officials searched the old Cambria Air Force Station on Wednesday for evidence of illegal construction in asbestos-laced buildings and improper disposal of the hazardous materials.

Authorities received reports last week from at least two people living at the old station who feared they were exposed to toxic asbestos fibers during construction on base buildings. Those residents also said a garbage company unknowingly collected dozens of bags containing the harmful waste.

In addition to the dozen or so people living full time on the base, about 50 people who attend church there on a weekly basis may have been exposed to the carcinogen, the residents said.

The San Luis Obispo County Air Pollution Control District confirmed Wednesday that it was investigating a case at the station but would not provide details.

County Health Officer Greg Thomas said the Public Health Department received a call about asbestos this month and referred it to the pollution control district, which has jurisdiction in this case.

Several sheriff's deputies were also seen at the site Wednesday. But Sheriff's Department officials did not return calls Wednesday regarding their involvement.

Hollywood movie producer Bernd Schaefers bought the 34-acre site at 202 Julin Lane in 2004 for $2 million.

Schaefers told The Tribune on Wednesday that he gave authorities permission to go on his property but did not know what they were investigating. He refused to comment further.

Since the military stopped using the hill south of Cambria to track planes and missiles in 1979, the property has had various private owners and, in recent years, numerous visits from sheriff's deputies.

Accusations of illegal asbestos abatement at the site date to 2002, when the former owner was battling over rights to the property. Air pollution officials investigated but did not find evidence to support the claims.

Owen Kelly, who rented a room in a building at the station, told The Tribune that he told air pollution authorities last week that after his two years of living at the base he tore out ceilings, cut insulation off pipes and scraped tile floors at the request of property manager Luther Akers.

"I was told back then that it wasn't asbestos," Kelly said.

Akers did not return a phone message Wednesday.

Kelly said he assumes now that all the material he removed was asbestos because it was similar to a sample recently torn from a building that an independent laboratory confirmed earlier this month was asbestos.

"The asbestos that came off (one) pipe was about 40 or 50 garbage bags, and it went bye-bye by the garbage company," Kelly said.

Mark Milligan, another renter, said he collected that sample after a crew under Akers' direction began tearing out the ceiling and floor in the same building where his family lived.

Based on his years in the construction business, Milligan said he suspected the building was laced with asbestos.

A lab test confirmed his suspicions Aug. 18, and Milligan moved his wife and 14-year-old daughter out the same day. Kelly followed, though neither had lined up a place to live, they said.

Both men told authorities they are concerned about the health consequences from their exposure.

From studies of people who were exposed to asbestos in factories and shipyards, officials know that breathing high levels of asbestos fibers can increase the risk of lung cancer and other breathing disorders, Francisco Arcaute, spokesman for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, wrote in an e-mail to The Tribune.

People who get asbestosis have usually been exposed to high levels of asbestos for a long time, Arcaute wrote. Symptoms typically don't appear until about 20 to 30 years after the first exposure.

Kelly and the Milligans had physicals done Wednesday so they can track their health. They said Schaefers agreed to pay their medical bills.