Experts hired to survey an environmental restoration project at Long Beach’s Colorado Lagoon found mounds of asbestos-contaminated dirt piled near a city fire station after two workers alleged they were told to ignore the cancer-causing materials they’d dug out of the ground.
The workers, who have since been fired and are suing for wrongful termination, were part of a construction crew digging a new channel that will connect the lagoon to Alamitos Bay. For months, they allege, the two warned the contractor managing the city project that the debris they continued to unearth was dangerous and needed to be removed properly.
They feared for their own safety and worried that the dumped debris, if it remained hidden, could lead to a public health disaster. But those concerns were ignored, they say, until October when they escalated their complaints to environmental and work-safety regulators.
Soon after, a city-hired asbestos consultant confirmed there were mounds of contaminated dirt piled near the fire station that stood just outside the worksite, according to reports the city provided in response to questions from the Long Beach Post. Nearby debris and a disposal pit used for dumping also contained high levels of the carcinogen.