[Mintwood-place] Preliminary Tests Show Negative for Lead in Dust Residue - Capitol City's plans

[Cynthia Pols]

Capital City's intentions are to build 12 condo units in those 2  
buildings. That's kind of a large number of units at 6 per building.   
We might want to monitor the permitting process for the construction  
phase as, among other things, this project will increase the demand  
for parking on our block (As I understand it, DC rules require that an  
additional parking spot be added for every new housing unit added but  
the DC government often waives this requirement).

As to the lead paint issue, lead paint was generally used only on the  
wood portions of old buildings (i.e., not on the plaster walls). I  
learned about this a few years ago when our building  was tested for  
lead and found to have high levels of lead in the paint covering the  
wooden areas of the building. The testing technician told me that this  
was to be expected given the age and unrenovated condition of the  
building. Given that the guest house was also similarly unrenovated  
(and, IIRC, contained a lot of wood panelling) and is of a similar  
vintage, I would guess that it also contains high levels of lead in  
the paint.  The clouds of dust that we saw emanating from the guest  
house would not contain lead dust if the clouds were produced solely  
from tearing at the plaster in the walls and the ceilings. When lead  
paint enters the picture is when the workers tear at the wood in such  
a way as to penetrate the surface of the paint (i.e., paint chips or  
dust are produced by their work). So it's likely that lead will be  
present in those dust clouds if the workers are tearing at the wood  
and the paster at the same time. My guess is that if this project were  
being done right from a lead abatement perspective, the workers should  
heave carefully removed the wood first so as to minimize the chances  
of producing paint chips or dust from the demolition process.

Asbestos probably is not in the walls of the building (because of its  
age and unrenovated state) but could have been present in the linoleum  
and wrappings around the hot water and/or steam pipes.  As with the  
wood, this material probably should have been carefully removed before  
tearing apart the building so as to minimize the possibility of any  
release of asbestos into the air.

--Cynthia Pols

On Jul 20, 2010, at 9:47 AM, Adam Eidinger wrote:

> Dear Neighbors,
>
> I just want to briefly report that last nights field swab tests(4)  
> for lead came back negative, however, if there is drywall mixed it  
> may have negated the tests ability to detect according to the specs  
> of the test. I couldn't find tests that you collect samples and send  
> away  to a lab.  More testing is needed.
>
> At this point all kinds of violations have occurred at 1854  
> Mintwood.  Now with the rain Mother Nature has been washing the dust  
> away to the sea and we have a gutted building next door. I wonder if  
> us neighbors are at an increased risk of a fire or/and rat infest  
> station.
>
> This is a big project for our little block.  It would be nice if the  
> DCRA facilitated something here so everyone was on same page.
>
> Perhaps Jim Graham's staff will look into it.  Its a simple  
> question; What will this place looks like?  Are they planning to add  
> are floors?  Looking from my deck they are making various markings  
> on the roof, architects notes that would indicate a plan to build  
> something.
>
> Can anyone say what its going end up looking like?  What are Capitol  
> City Realtors intentions?
> Sincerely,
>
> Adam
> 1858 Mintwood
>
> _______________________________________________
> Mintwood-place mailing list
> Mintwood-place at lists.mutualaid.org
> http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/mintwood-place
>

Cynthia M. Pols
1862 Mintwood Place, NW - # 304
Washington, DC  20009
202-328-0654

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.mutualaid.org/pipermail/mintwood-place/attachments/20100720/a7693632/attachment.html>