When a 157-foot-wide section of a water distribution structure fell from one of the huge cooling towers at Pennsylvania Power and Light’s (PPL) Montour Power Plant earlier this week, it immediately put workers and area residents at risk for asbestos exposure.

Much of the material in cooling towers contains asbestos, notes an article in the Sunbury Daily Item, and though there has been no evidence of asbestos found at this point, PPL will continue to monitor the air around the accident area, says spokesperson Teri MacBride.

“PPL is deciding how to approach the structure in a safe fashion and will not send employees or contractors into the area until we have a plan. They are still preparing that plan,” said MacBride.

“The first thing they are doing is assessing a safety approach and figuring a scope of work for repairs,” she said, noting that they were unsure as to why the structure fell. Terrorism has not been considered, she added.

“The plant [which burns bituminous coal] just went through another rigorous certification through OSHA and was recognized with the Voluntary Protection Program Star as a top industrial safety site,” she said.

In the meantime, the water spilled from pipes broken in the collapse has been contained in a detention basin and is being held there until it is tested for asbestos as well as chlorine and various metals. If it is clean, it will be released into the nearby Susquehanna River, MacBride said.

No one was injured in the accident as most of the employees at the power plant do not work in the area where the collapse occurred.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 7th, 2008 at 7:40 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.