Applied Partners LLC was sentenced today to pay a $500,000 fine and complete a two-year term of probation for the company’s illegal handling of regulated asbestos containing material (RACM) at a site in Saginaw, Michigan.
The company had previously pleaded guilty to violating the Clean Air Act’s asbestos work practice standards for its role in demolishing a structure in 2019. Inhalation of asbestos fibers can lead to cancers like mesothelioma and lung cancer or noncancerous conditions like asbestosis.
According to court documents, Applied Partners acquired a defunct industrial site in Saginaw in 2018 with the intention of demolishing and scrapping structures on the property before reselling it. In fall 2019, despite knowing that RACM remained in a structure called the Power House, Applied Partners directed another company to begin demolition.
Between about Sept. 19 and Oct. 24, 2019, employees of the company performing the demolition used heavy machinery to break apart brick walls and to pull down at least one large facility component covered in RACM from the upper floors of the structure. The demolition was done in violation of numerous asbestos work practice standards. Demolition ceased once regulators performed sampling and informed Applied Partners that it would need to perform remediation of remaining RACM before demolition could continue.
“Applied Partners knowingly disregarded asbestos work practice standards designed to protect human health,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD). “Today’s sentence demonstrates that public health is among our highest priorities, and we will prosecute those who violate environmental laws.”
The EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division investigated the case. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources Law Enforcement Division, Environmental Investigation Section, assisted with the investigation.
Trial Attorney Rachel Roberts of ENRD’s Environmental Crimes Section, Assistant U.S. Attorney Katharine Hemann for the Eastern District of Michigan, and EPA Regional Criminal Enforcement Counsel Samuel Cardick prosecuted the case.