Molly Should Invite Dan Sudakin

[Guest guest]

Date: Sun Oct 15, 2000 9:13pm

Subject: Like the mold, a homeowner's dispute with city grows

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/news/oregonian/00/10/lc_

11boule15.frame

Like the mold, a homeowner's dispute with city grows

Sunday, October 15, 2000

By Margie Boulé, Columnist, The Oregonian

Nobody lives in the small white house on Unander Street in Vancouver, Wash.

There are curtains at the windows and furniture in the rooms. There are

children's drawings displayed, clothing in the closets, dishes in the

cupboards.

But it's what you can't see that makes this pleasant, benign-looking house

so controversial, and perhaps dangerous. Within the walls, beneath the

floors, behind the wallpaper, there is a black mold growing, a mold that

medical experts call " highly toxic. " Its scientific name is Stachybotrys

chartarum.

The city of Vancouver says the house is safe to live in. But Molly Atwood,

who owns the house, believes it is not.

The city of Vancouver says it is not responsible for the damp conditions

that have been so habitable to toxic mold. Molly Atwood believes her house

would be mold-free, and her family would be healthy today, if the city of

Vancouver hadn't acted negligently.

The city cites its experts; Molly cites hers.

Until the question is resolved, Molly, her father and her three children are

homeless. Still, every month Molly pays mortgage and taxes on a house she

never wants to set foot in again.

In November 1996, the city of Vancouver was widening Fruit Valley Road. But

the road crew had not created proper drainage; during a storm, water from

the road was diverted onto Molly Atwood's property. " I heard this loud,

terrible noise, " Molly says. " It sounded like Multnomah Falls. I went

outside and it looked like a river was running into my basement. "

Molly called 9-1-1, and city workers pumped 8 feet of water from Molly's

basement.

The city admitted blame, said it would fix the drainage problem and replaced

Molly's furnace and the hot water heater. " But they didn't replace any

insulation, " says Molly. And they didn't dry out dirt that sat in part of

the old basement.

One year later, it happened again. Molly was pregnant with her third child,

running up and down the basement stairs trying to salvage personal items

from her basement. " This time the city had double pumps. They drained 8 feet

of water in three hours, " which Molly says caused her foundation to crack.

After the second flood, Molly says, she and her family began to get sick.

" My son started having a speech delay. Then he developed tremors and had

neurological problems. " Developmentally, Molly says, her son was regressing.

" He had bronchitis all the time and was throwing up in the middle of the

night from coughing so much. He had asthma. It was weird. He hadn't had

problems before. Then the same thing started with my daughter. "

In August 1998, Molly and her neighbors got letters from the Port of

Vancouver, warning there could be neighborhood contamination by TCE, an

industrial solvent. Molly worried that the floods may have carried TCE into

her home, making her family sick.

She contacted the Southwest Washington Health Department. " The man said he

thought the children's health problems might be caused by mold. " His report

reads, " I told them I suspected a mold problem. "

In fact, Molly had recently seen mold on a wall and had used bleach to

remove it. Molly contacted city adjuster Jack Schneider, from the McLarens

Toplis insurance agency, who came to her home, saw mold growing and sent a

professional cleaning service. " They painted, " says Molly, " but the dirt in

my basement had been moist since the flood. They didn't remove it. "

Molly says she was being pressured by Schneider to sign papers that released

the city from any further responsibility for damage. Molly refused to sign.

There was damage to her foundation, and her children were getting sicker.

Last December, Molly decided to redecorate her father's bedroom. " I pulled

the wallpaper off, and it looked like somebody had painted the wall black

underneath. " It was mold. Molly called the health department and was told to

clean the wall with a 10 percent bleach solution. She did.

It wasn't until last spring that Molly began to believe her home was

dangerous. A segment on the CBS program " 48 Hours " told of a family that had

left their home with only the clothes on their backs, because of a mold

called Stachybotrys chartarum. The mold had caused father and son brain

damage. Other symptoms -- headaches, nosebleeds, chronic bronchitis,

tremors, asthma -- sounded like the problems Molly and her family were

experiencing.

Molly jumped on the Internet and was frightened by what she read. She says

she spoke to a city manager in the spring, who has since left his position,

who denied the flooding could have caused mold growth in her home. She says

Jack Schneider, city claims adjuster, also expressed disbelief. " So I threw

a fuss, " Molly says. The city hired an industrial hygiene consultant to do

testing. Molly says she was told she'd receive the test results " within two

weeks. I waited, but I never got them. "

She called Jack Schneider, " but his phone had been disconnected and his

e-mail address didn't work. " She left messages with the city. " Finally, Jack

called me. He said my house was totally fine. He said, 'You have no mold in

your house.' " Molly says Jack told her he would not give her the test

results on her house " because I wouldn't give him medical releases. "

Jack Schneider could not be reached for comment Friday.

Molly decided she could not trust the city, and she had to get her family

out of the house. But Molly lives off disability payments; she couldn't

afford to continue making mortgage and tax payments and pay rent elsewhere.

So she, her father and her three children moved into her sister's house in

June. " I felt devastated, " she says. " I walked away from everything. All the

kids' pictures and keepsakes. If we took anything, it could infect the next

place we lived. "

The city believes Molly had no need to leave her home. It released its test

results to KVAN radio reporter Gavin Dawson last month. The tests showed the

presence of three toxic molds, none of them as dangerous as Stachybotrys

chartarum. " I had an extensive conversation with the expert we hired to go

in and do testing, " says Terry Weiner, assistant city attorney, " and she

assured me that the living quarters were safe to inhabit. But not the

basement, because of the mold found there on a piece of wood that had not

been there during the flooding. It was not Stachybotrys. "

According to Terry Weiner, the city believes mold grew in Molly's house not

because of the two floods, but because the house is damp. " There was a

problem with the crawl space, not what I think was our problem, but hers.

It's not sealed. It's a dirt floor. She's in an area with a high water

table, so there is probably moisture coming up through the crawl space

dirt. "

Molly says the dirt in her basement never was damp before the floods. The

Oregonian has learned that neighbors have no mold in their homes. And an

inspection report Molly got when she bought the house indicates the house

never had flooded before, nor had there been moisture or mold problems in

the past.

Molly says that after the road was widened her yard became damp all the

time. Terry Weiner says he was not aware Molly's property was dry before the

road work.

When Molly couldn't get the city's lab results, she decided to get her own.

She learned of a reputable lab in Seattle; Molly drove samples to the lab

herself. The lab found Stachybotrys chartarum.

Molly believed that now the city would make things right. But the city did

not accept the new findings.

So Molly went public, and not in a timid way. Molly carried a sign that

said, " I believe the city of Vancouver is killing my children " when Gov.

Locke held a forum in Vancouver last month. She got the attention of

Gavin Dawson of KVAN radio and public access TV reporter a Cotter,

both of whom aired reports last month.

a accompanied Molly to the house, where they pulled pieces of

insulation from the basement ceiling. The insulation was delivered to Coffey

Laboratories Inc. in Portland two weeks ago.

Dr. Fred Colley, a microbiologist, found Stachybotrys chartarum. " I had not

seen it before, " he says, " and I do a lot of environmental molds. Just to

make sure, I sent a sample to a lab in Arizona that specializes in mold

identification, and they confirmed my diagnosis. So it is definitely

Stachybotrys. "

On Friday, Terry Weiner said the latest test results are " new information to

me. I'd like to get the results of that and talk to the woman (who did our)

testing. "

Still, the city wants proof the mold appeared because of the city-caused

floods. " The problem, as I understand it, " says Terry Weiner, " is that she's

got a bad combination of a high water table and a basement that probably . .

.. was not sealed as tightly as it should be. " There are mold spores

everywhere, Terry says, " and she has the right combination for mold to

grow. "

Terry says the city also is concerned that Molly never has given them proof

of her family's medical problems. Molly says she doesn't trust the city, and

doesn't want to turn over private medical records.

There it stands. Molly wants the city to admit responsibility and cover her

losses. The city believes Molly's house has mold because it's damp, and not

because of the flooding. It says it has reimbursed Molly for items lost in

the floods, has paid for two cleanups and testing and believes it is not

responsible for anything more.

Molly, protective of her family, angry that so many politicians have

promised to help and then never followed through, is making as much noise as

she can. She's picketed, she's called reporters, she's written letter after

letter.

Just two weeks ago, she wrote a long letter to Royce Pollard, mayor of

Vancouver. In it, she defended her claims and asked for help. She also

invited the mayor and his family to dinner in her now-abandoned home. " I am

an excellent cook, " she wrote. " However, I will be wearing protective gear. "

Molly may never be able to prove her claims. But she's fighting for her

children, she says, and she won't quit. As she wrote at the end of her

letter to the mayor, " I am like the mold. No matter how hard you try, I

won't go away. "

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

----

Reach Margie Boule at 503-221-8450, 1320 S.W. Broadway, Portland, OR 97201,

or marboule@....