NY Legislation Seeks To Improve Notification of Asbestos Removal Projects
A bill moving in New York Senate aims to encourage New York homeowners and the contractors they hire to be more forthcoming about reporting planned asbestos removal projects by capping a regulatory fee.
Asbestos is a highly toxic, cancer-causing material once widely used in building materials. It must be handled carefully to avoid releasing fibers into the air during building renovations and demolitions. Each year, 2,500 to 3,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with mesothelioma, an incurable cancer caused by inhaling airborne asbestos fibers.
New York law requires notification of the NY Asbestos Control Commission before a project to remove, encapsulate or disturb 160 square feet or more of asbestos-containing material. Even small amounts of asbestos in the home can cause injury and disease. But the current fee structure is cost prohibitive and encourages many homeowners to undertake asbestos removal projects illegally or not to do them at all, according to a memo attached to NY Senate bill 748. Few homeowners currently comply with the notification procedures, the memo said.
The bill, introduced by state Sen. Catharine Young, would cap the notification fee that the owners of owner-occupied one and two-family houses are required to pay to no more than $500. Asbestos removal notification fees currently range up to $2,000 per project, depending on the amount of asbestos material. The NY Senate’s Labor and Finance committees voted to endorse the legislation this week.
According to a memo attached to Senate bill 748, it is believed that the Asbestos Control Commission receives so few notifications because the current fee structure is cost prohibitive and encourages many homeowners to undertake asbestos removal projects illegally. The current fee structure has had a detrimental effect on many New York cities and towns’ ability to address building code violations in distressed neighborhoods by more than doubling the cost of demolition activities. Capping the fee will increase the number of homeowner asbestos project notifications that the state Department of Labor receives and improve compliance since it will be more economically feasible to comply with the law.
Contractors are required to notify the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the New York Department of Labor before undertaking asbestos removal projects.