South Dakota construction company accused of improper asbestos disposal

A South Dakota construction company improperly disposed of asbestos-laden material in a local landfill, a report by the Argus Leader says. Hultgren Construction failed to file the legally-required documents before removing the asbestos from the Copper Lounge job site, and the material was dumped in the Sioux Falls Regional Landfill’s general construction debris area and not its hazardous waste area.

Allegedly, crews rolled the asbestos into plastic garbage bags, trucked the material through town and illegally buried it at the landfill. Landfill officials accepted the bags without knowing they contained asbestos.

The South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) had previous conversations with Aaron Hultgren, Hultgren Construction president, about asbestos disposal requirements, the report says.

Hultgren is already under federal criminal investigation for its role in the Dec. 2, 2016 death of an employee named Ethan McMahon. The report says the Copper Lounge collapsed on McMahon, but federal officials have declined to identify the focus of their investigation.

An investigation on the asbestos removal ended in May and documents obtained by the Argus Leader say that Hultgren has been fined $20,000 by the state. A former Sioux Falls building services director contacted DENR to determine if the required asbestos records had been filed. The report says after DENR said there were no records, the director contacted Hultgren and was told there was no asbestos inspection information. DENR contracted GeoTek Engineering and Testing Services to obtain an inventory of asbestos taken in 1999. The report says asbestos wrap used to insulate basement pipe was in the inventory, but when DENR officials inspected the job site on Dec. 6 and Dec. 7, the material was gone.

Officials found remnants of the pipe wrap during the investigation, the report says. Crews who removed the asbestos wore proper protective gear, including body suits, rubber gloves and googles, and sprayed the wrap with water, but they were not certified to remove asbestos.

Forty-six loads of material were transported between the job site between Oct. 5 and Dec. 2, the report says. Officials say most of the asbestos-laden material was in two of the 46 loads.