Phoenixville Business Owner Sentenced for Using Improper Practices

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Phoenixville Business Owner Sentenced for Using Improper Practices

by Realtime News: News Blaze

http://www.imakenews.com/pureaircontrols/e_article000618353.cfm?

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that Wallace

Heidelmark, 48, of Phoenixville, was sentenced today in U.S.

District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to 24 months

in prison and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine, a special assessment of

$300, and restitution in the amount of $41,541.17 for asbestos

violations.

Indoor Air Quality, Inc., the Phoenixville company owned and

operated by Heidelmark, was also sentenced to two years probation,

and was ordered to pay a $100,000 fine, a special assessment of

$1,200 and restitution in the amount of $41,541.17.

Heidelmark and Indoor Air Quality, Inc., were in the business of

removing asbestos from homes and businesses in the Philadelphia

area. The indictment, issued in August 2005, charged the defendants

with mail fraud, failure to comply with federal and state

requirements concerning the removal of asbestos, including

improperly removing asbestos from several locations between 2001 and

2004 without using adequate water during the removal, and not

keeping the removed asbestos adequately wet.

" The Bush Administration holds polluters accountable by taking

action against individuals and companies that knowingly risk public

health for the sake of profit, " said Granta Y. Nakayama, EPA's

Assistant Administrator for Enforcement and Compliance

Assurance. " These illegal asbestos removals exposed workers as well

as children and the general public to unnecessary health risks. "

The restitution ordered by the court will pay for medical

examinations for employees of the company and will also reimburse

certain homeowners who had subsequent air testing performed.

" These defendants are now being held accountable for exposing people

to the health risk, " said Pat Meehan, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern

District of Pennsylvania in which the case was prosecuted. " There

are significant dangers associated with the improper removal of

asbestos. That's why there are laws governing how it is removed and

disposed of. "

The defendants operated a scheme to defraud homeowners by promising

to use certain proper removal techniques in removing asbestos from

their residences. They sometimes routinely failed to use the

promised techniques, and regularly falsified air testing at the

conclusion of asbestos removal jobs by sending blank, unused air

sample canisters to a testing lab instead of canisters, which had

actually collected an air sample at the residence where the removal

job occurred. The defendants would then tell the homeowners and

business owners that the building's air had passed the post-removal

air test.

The case was investigated by the Criminal Investigative Division and

the Inspector General of the Environmental Protection Agency, with

cooperation from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The matter has been assigned to Assistant United States Attorney

Albert S. Glenn, and Special Assistant United States Attorneys

Keating and ph .

For specific questions about asbestos removal and the environmental

impact, call the EPA's regional hotline at 1-800-438-2474.

Source: U.S. EPA

Pure Air Control Services