Some workers say site is 'sick'

[Guest guest]

Some workers say site is 'sick'

Published Sunday, January 21st, 2007

Mid Columbia Tri City Herald - Mid-Columbia,WA

By Trumbo, Herald staff writer

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/tch/local/story/8579339p-8472383c.html

Tammy Wolf thought she had landed her dream job five years ago, a

perfect career fit that would lead to a state employee retirement.

But what the 43-year-old married mother of two grown children didn't

expect was that her dream would become a headache, as a series of

puzzling health problems eventually forced her to resign any hope of

making it to retirement.

Wolf quit her job as a community victim liaison in August after

nearly 18 months of increasingly debilitating health problems.

She believes those problems, which included headaches, dizziness,

skin problems and sinusitis, were caused by mold in her Department

of Corrections office in Kennewick.

" I don't know if I'll ever have my health back again, " said Wolf,

who filed a disability claim with the state Department of Labor and

Industries in April. In it she complained she was ailing from " sick

building syndrome " from working at the Waterwood Professional Office

Building at 500 N. Morain St.

Wolf has stacks of documents to show that Waterwood, which has been

leased for two decades to state agencies, has a history of water-

related problems.

But state officials and the building owner, Ardel Curtis of

Kennewick, say whatever problems existed have been fixed and there

is no evidence Wolf's health issues were caused by problems at

Waterwood.

Wolf claims serious flooding in 2006 and evidence of mold that she

documented beginning a year ago suggest some DOC officials are more

interested in covering up leaks inside Waterwood than in remedying

the problems.

Waterwood was built in the early 1980s as a two-story concrete

structure with a flat roof. The main floor is at street level, but

its distinctive feature is a lower level built around a courtyard

some 10 feet below the street level.

The terrain slopes dramatically toward the courtyard on two sides of

the 50,000-square-foot facility, creating a daylight basement effect

for lower-level offices.

The building is home to state employees from the Attorney General's

Office, the Department of Corrections and Department of Social and

Human Services. The Department of Labor and Industries also had

offices there until 2000, when it moved out because of concern about

water leaks and other maintenance issues, according to documents

reviewed by the Herald.

The leak problems and maintenance issues at the building date back

about 10 years.

An August 1998 briefing paper from Labor and Industries officials

recommended the Waterwood lease not be renewed for another five

years because of " lack of cooperation with the landlord " and

a " history of unacceptable work done by the owner's contractors. "

The document recommended the lease be extended only two years while

Labor and Industries worked toward moving to another office, which

it did.

The briefing paper said leaks were one of the unresolved

issues: " Rainwater and a recently installed sprinkler system leak

continually and penetrate through the concrete exterior walls and

windows of the building into the interior office workspace. "

The proposed lease renewal agreement said building owner E.A. Curtis

Co. had to " repair cracks in concrete walls, broken concrete

sidewalks and correct leaning retaining walls at all exterior areas

of the building (and) repair the leak under the suspended walkway to

stop water penetration into interior offices. "

Wolf ended up with one of those interior offices five years later.

The proposed lease renewal also required: " (sealing) all exterior

walls and windows to prevent water leakage. "

Curtis says problems have been corrected quickly when

discovered. " We've got records that show every time we have a

complaint we show up and do the work, " he said. " We've done business

with the state for 20 years. They are good renters, and we take care

of them. "

The leases bring Curtis about $1.20 per square foot a month, or

about $720,000 a year for the building.

Curtis admitted there have been water problems in the past, and that

turkey roasting pans occasionally have been placed on top of file

cabinets in lower-level offices " as a precaution " for leaks.

A recent Herald walk-through of a portion of the two-story building

where the attorney general has offices confirmed that aluminum pans

had been placed to catch rainwater drips, and that ceiling tiles

still showed water stains.

As for mold, Curtis said: " We've had it checked and the buildings

have been cleared for mold. "

But dozens of e-mails written in 2006 by DOC employees who worked in

the building tell a different story.

An April 26 e-mail from Wolf, who also was union shop steward, to

DOC facilities senior planner Steve Harwick said water ran out of

the ceiling and down a side wall and into hallways. " Files were

temporarily removed from the walls due to the water and a trash can

was placed below the leak in the hallway, " she wrote.

Other e-mails from DOC staff in January and February noted the leaks

and commented about health issues believed caused by mold.

DOC spokesman Jeff Weathersby said SCM Consultants of Kennewick took

samples and did an air quality check in March, determining that

the " mold level was lower inside than outside, " meaning that there

was no mold problem for building occupants.

E.A. Curtis Co. paid SCM's $3,500 fee.

SCM recommended changes to improve indoor air quality, and Wolf

asked in an e-mail why they weren't being followed.

" There isn't anything that has to be done. The (consultant's) report

is a little too ambiguous, but essentially the survey found nothing.

There was no growing mold. ... There is no mold to be removed, "

Harwick replied in an April 6 e-mail.

Harwick would not talk to the Herald about the Waterwood issues or

about the content of hundreds of e-mails reviewed by the Herald.

The Herald also found another air quality test to check for airborne

mold was done in November 2003 on upper-level offices after attorney

general's staff complained about odors and health issues.

The conclusion was air fresheners and carpet cleaning chemicals

probably caused the odors, but Wolf said employees didn't believe

it. Since then, employees in the Attorney General's Office at

Waterwood have reported seeing mushrooms growing on the carpet after

water leaks.

Wolf said in an interview that she's suffered skin, sinus and lung

problems, and " diffuse neurological symptoms " because of exposure to

mold in the building.

She says she began seeing doctors in 2005, initially concerned about

why she was having skin rashes, sinus problems and persistent

coughing. Her personal doctor couldn't pin it down, and neither

could allergists. At one point, Wolf thought she was in the early

stages of multiple sclerosis.

" I went through everything, from A to Z. I just wanted to know what

was wrong with me, " she said.

Wolf says the symptoms got worse after she began working four 10-

hour days in November 2004. She said it got so bad she went on a

three-month leave in mid-2005. There was some relief, she said, but

the headaches and sinus infections continued.

Winter 2005 brought rain and more water into the Waterwood building.

One of the biggest interior floods was Jan. 31, Wolf said. DOC

offices were closed and employees were sent home while Curtis

cleaned up the mess.

E-mails also showed incidents of toilets overflowing, water dripping

from pipes in the ceiling and rain and irrigation water seeping into

the building through an underground conduit.

Wolf said two co-workers told her in January they had similar health

problems, and perhaps they all were reacting to mold in the

building.

Word spread rapidly among employees that the Waterwood building

might be an unhealthy work environment.

A petition signed by 13 employees called for corrective action. Wolf

said nothing came of it. Even the incident reports and hazard

reports filed by employees have been misplaced, she said.

Wolf said she learned about the missing reports after submitting a

public records request. The state replied in a letter that the

documents could not be found.

Dozens of employee e-mails mentioned various health concerns both

before and after Harwick informed DOC staff members April 6 that

SCM's inspection and analysis showed no problem.

Wolf wrote a 42-page rebuttal to the SCM report that included

photographs of water-damaged areas and sites that appeared to have

mold. She noted a closet in the kitchen was found to have the mold

aspergillus/penicllium after she had a sample of it tested.

DOC supervisors and the state's facilities administrators answered

Wolf's challenge by calling for more inspections and air quality

tests. Water-stained ceiling tiles were photographed, and in some

cases removed to check pipes for leaks or water damage.

Samples were taken of suspected moldy areas in ceilings, around

windows, stained carpets and floors in the kitchen, bathrooms and

storage rooms.

Wolf says she attended many of the meetings where the mold issues

were discussed last spring and was allowed to watch while samples

were taken for testing.

Wolf's personal physician, Dr. E. Krause of Richland,

informed Labor and Industries in a July 27, 2006, letter that Wolf

was " suffering with the effects of the exposure to molds and their

airborne toxins in the building that she works or worked in. "

But Labor and Industries used SCM's report to discount Wolf's

allegations.

" (They) did not show any evidence of airborne amplification of

specific mold species unique to the indoor environment, " said Dr.

Sparks, a doctor retained by Labor and Industries to review

Wolf's disability case file.

However, Sparks also said: " There was mold contamination on drywall

near the floor drain in the furnace closet and a small area of mold

growth in (an) office above the window. "

Wolf, who is appealing her disability denial, said she is concerned

that state officials " appear to be (discounting) the health

complaints of its staff. "

She claims the state has not considered e-mails from co-workers

complaining of health problems related to Waterwood or looked at the

history in Labor and Industries' own lease records about problems in

the building.

Labor and Industries did an unannounced inspection of the Waterwood

building in June, but reported no mold issues.

And Curtis, as promised, put a new roof on Waterwood in late summer.

Despite numerous complaints about leaks and smells in the Attorney

General's Office space, the lease was renewed in September after the

reroofing.

Harwick informed DOC staff at Waterwood on Aug. 7 that Labor and

Industries had closed its investigation.

Wolf resigned that day, saying she felt she had to quit a job she

loved so she would " no longer be at risk of further mold exposure in

the office. "