Asbestos abatement in Wisconsin gets pricier

Increasing costs may force the state's asbestos regulation program to raise fees, despite times being tight for contractors, too.

Bill Cook, project manager with Team Environmental Contractors, Milwaukee, said business is tight, and new fees from the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services won't help.

"To me, it puts a strain on an already suffocating dollar with the high gas price and trying to keep the doors open, and now I need a fee for this or a fee for that," Cook said. "I'm not attacking (DHFS). That's just how life is right now."

Cook and Shelley Bruce, asbestos and lead program supervisor at DHFS, face a similar situation. Bruce's program receives no tax money and must support itself with fees it collects from contractors. It hasn't raised fees since 1988, and DHFS lent it roughly $100,000 from other programs in 2006 and 2007 to make up its deficit, she said.

Like a business, Bruce must pay off the debt and keep up with increasing costs. That means increasing prices for its customers, the asbestos contractors and workers it regulates.

Bruce said rate hikes have been in the works since 2004.

"We can't just up our prices when things start to get tight; a company can add a gas surcharge," Bruce said. "For us, it's a multiyear process to get through the rule-making process, and we have to meet with shareholders in our industry. Their fees pay for this operation."

The state will hold public hearings on the proposed fee increases between June 17 and June 20 and will accept public comments on it until the end of June.

If approved, the change will affect more than just fees and certification requirements. Current rules only regulate buildings with 10 or more housing units. The new ones will cover all work involving asbestos, Bruce said, except homeowners working on their own houses.

The proposed rule would require contracting companies get state certification. In the past, only workers needed certification.

Companies that work on exterior housing siding would pay $100 a year to register, and all others would pay $200 annually. Ohio and Illinois charge all abatement companies $750, Iowa $500 and Minnesota $100.

Bruce said new fees were kept low for companies and workers that remove exterior siding because, in the past, many didn't register their projects. It's an attempt to lure them into the fold, she said.

Bruce said her department responded to industry requests intended to make contractors' lives easier. Current rules require companies notify the state of projects 10 days before starting work. The new rules include a fee, but would let smaller projects notify DHFS the day before work begins for $100. Notices given two or more days in advance would cost $50.

The state Department of Natural Resources would still require 10- day notice for projects involving friable asbestos -- such as the asbestos in pipe liners, which is different from that in floor tiles -- and projects involving more than 160 square feet of asbestos removal. However, the rule would no longer require contractors to file with both state agencies for a project.

"We hope that's more enticing for siding contractors, that they will see the benefit," she said.

Cook said the shorter notification sounds helpful, but in Milwaukee, the city's Department of Neighborhood Services requires notification five days before work begins.

Cook said if a $50 notification fee ruins a contractor's balance on a project, it wasn't worth doing anyway. However, times are tough for asbestos contractors, and the amount of work goes down each year, he said. He figured that, eventually, there will be no buildings left that need asbestos abatement.

"There's only so many old buildings," Cook said, "and each year there's less of them."

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