Review of Foam Insulation to Tighten

Montgomery County plans to tighten its oversight of construction sites using foam insulation after construction workers repeatedly sprayed plastic particles across blocks of downtown Bethesda this spring.

The decision comes after two County Council members asked regulators to review the case, detailed in The Washington Post, of the millions of particles produced at a Hilton Garden Inn construction site on Waverly Street.

County environmental officials had made at least eight site visits since late March and had imposed $1,500 in fines on Donohoe Construction because of the problem. But it was not until the county threatened to revoke the company's building permit that Donohoe made significant changes in its construction practices at the site, county records show.

County officials in the environmental and permitting agencies said that they have decided to step up their advance review of construction projects using the foam insulation and now require pre-construction meetings with all developers and builders who plan to use such insulation. They also will require a written plan outlining how workers on the site will contain and dispose of the particles in an environmentally sensitive manner. Shrouding the work area or the entire building is an option, as is the repeated use of vacuums on scaffolding and on the ground.

County law requires builders to take "reasonable precautions" to minimize airborne pollution.

The foam particles, which had been flying so thickly that some occupants of nearby buildings described "blizzard-like" conditions, are the result of a sanding process known as rasping. County officials have said repeatedly that the foam particles did not pose a public health hazard, although they are small enough to be inhaled or lodge in eyes. They were found in a multi-block area surrounding the construction site as well as in a nearby creek.

"We continue to make every effort to minimize the impacts on the community, in full cooperation with the county," Steven J. Van Dorpe, a Donohoe official, wrote in an e-mail.

Hadi Mansouri, chief of the building division in Montgomery's Department of Permitting Services, said there will be more advance review in future projects where the foam insulation is used.

"We will meet with the design team, the owners, the subcontractors, the architect," he said. Usually, pre-construction meetings are held with only buildings taller than three stories, he said, but the growing use of the foam insulation, and the potential for widespread pollution if the material is not contained, spurred the county to require such meetings with anyone using it.

Council members Roger Berliner (D-Bethesda-Potomac) and George L. Leventhal (D-At Large) also had asked county officials to consider strengthening fines for environmental violations.

They said yesterday that they plan to hold a hearing in the next few weeks to review the case.

"It is not clear to me that our enforcement mechanisms are sufficient to ensure public health and safety is taken care of," Berliner said.

Leventhal was blunter. "The fine is a joke," he said.