Information on asbestos worker safety citations

Read about the safety citations issued to asbestos workers

CPP is located in Washington, D.C., at New Jersey and E Streets, Southeast. It is the central heating and cooling plant that provides steam, chilled water, or both, year-round for about 16 million square feet of space in 24 facilities. Steam is used for comfort heating, heating domestic hot water, cooking, and humidification. Chilled water is used for comfort and equipment cooling.

CPP consists of four main facilities: the steam plant, the East Refrigeration Plant, the West Refrigeration Plant, and administration buildings. The plant also includes a coal yard south of the power plant. CPP’s distribution infrastructure consists of approximately 2-1/2 miles of walkable utility tunnels containing steam pipes, chilled water pipes, and other utility services, such as fiber optic and telephone lines for CPP customers.

Access to the utility tunnels is provided through various manholes and tunnel entrances in buildings. In addition, some steam and chilled water pipes are buried in more than a half mile of covered trenches. Access to the buried utilities is through manholes. The walkable tunnels were built at various times—one in 1908, two in the 1930s, and two in the 1950s.

In 2000, an AOC contractor reported that its study of the walkable utility tunnels indicated deterioration of the tunnel structure due to, among other things, aging and failure of the waterproofing system. According to the contractor, the deterioration was rapidly advancing in some sections and required immediate attention, and the tunnels posed a danger to worker safety, especially from delaminating concrete in the tunnel roofs that could fall without warning.

On December 7, 2000, OOC’s General Counsel issued a citation for unabated hazards in the tunnels—falling concrete, an inadequate communication system, and inadequate escape exits from these confined spaces. In 2005, OOC inspected the tunnels and determined that AOC had not made sufficient progress in addressing the previously identified hazards; OOC also identified additional concerns.

As a result, in January 2006, OOC’s General Counsel issued two more citations—one for an asbestos hazard and one for a heat stress hazard—and asked AOC to address them. In addition, on February 28, 2006, OOC’s General Counsel issued a complaint stating that AOC had not taken sufficient action to address the problems identified in the December 2000 citation.

Courtesy of The United States Government Accountability Office

Click To Talk To Us Online

see also:

Condition of Tunnels Condition of tunnels in DC could lead to asbestos exposure? Read more.
Condition of DC tunnels make you worry about asbestos exposure?

Worker Safety Citation Safety citations needed to protect workers from asbestos. Read more
Read about the safety citations issued to asbestos workers

Pipefitters in Washington DC Pipefitters who work in utility tunnels face asbestos exposure.
Know pipefitters who work with asbestos in utility tunnels? Read more!