Get a grip

My boss wants to know whether that's me in the hazard suit you just saw on the splash page for this section.

No, I'm much shorter.

So maybe it's true that working on this report has made me paranoid.

I mean, just think of it: asbestos flying everywhere, oil-soaked land sucked clean by trees and the worst of it " that teal-green, cyanide-laced earth along the Fox River in Waukesha. Imagine being Katie Jelacic, the construction manager. She actually got a bucket of the stuff.

Ever since I started researching contaminated work sites, my two-mile walks from my home into downtown Racine have become an exercise in risk avoidance.

I stroll right past the shuttered Walker Manufacturing plant, a "brownfield" so polluted that for months it was considered by some less costly to just leave alone.

As I pass the plant, I try to breathe as little as possible and I catch myself checking the bottom of my shoe. I half expect the sole to be a little melted.

Then I think, "Oh for God's sake get a grip."

Our sources in environmental engineering firms and at the DNR are among the first to tell us that serious job-site contamination is relatively rare in Wisconsin and most remediation occurs long before construction contractors arrive on-site. Most pre-construction inspections are quite thorough.

Still, as environmental lawyer Jim P. Lonsdorf said, "Contractors and owners, as many times as not, get hooked with the cost" of cleaning up the mess.

What you can't see can hurt you. The stuff you unearth can mean months of delays, workers idled, and you stuck with the expense. It might be rare, but in the hundreds of jobs you complete, it's bound to happen to you.

That's why we're offering you this environmental handbook. Here we've listed resources for you to contact. I hope you'll make the best use of them.

We want you to know how to avoid problems, get a solid inspection and handle the inevitable without endangering your safety or narrowing your profit margin.

- Liz Oplatka

 

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