What happens when Hazardous Materials find their Way into the soil on a Construction Site

 As a Toronto construction waste management company, we believe proper waste removal and reliable hazardous materials processing to be a necessity. A project in Fort Worth, Texas serves as one of the most recent examples of what happens when hazardous materials find their way into the soil at a construction site.

The Panther Island project, an 800-acre island being constructed next to downtown Fort Worth, has been an ongoing construction project for numerous years. Recently, it was found that approximately thirty of the construction workers associated with the project were exposed to hazardous materials – something that could have easily been avoided according to recent analyses.

Waste management companies and hazardous materials waste removal companies are a necessity for any construction site. They should be able to assess the location and remove any hazardous materials from the site that could be a danger to workers.

As it pertains to this example, it was cancer-causing benzene that was found in the soil surrounding the Panther Island project site. Though it is not known whether management knew about this or not, they did not disclose the presence of contaminated soil. When the issue was brought up with management, they have subsequently been accused of charging penalties of work delays and withholding payments when questions began to be asked.

This is precisely the opposite reaction one wants to take when there is hazardous materials or waste of any kind on-site. When this type of material is found, it’s a requirement to have it properly disposed of. By not doing so, that could mean fatal consequences for the unlucky construction workers who have to be on the site for hours at a time.

Though none of the workers have seemingly been affected in permanent ways, when workers began to feel nauseous and dizzy and had to be pulled from the site, management figured something was up. Today, the unprofessional handling of the Panther Island project contamination is being questioned by the authorities and construction crews associated with the site.

Construction management companies and government officials have a responsibility to report any hazardous waste on-site. There is an argument to be made that officials chose not to report the hazardous waste on the Panther Island project because, had they done so, the costs of the project would have increased substantially.

The contaminated soil, in this example, did not originate from the project itself but what was there before it. The removal of an underground oil storage tank is believed to have leaked the material long before construction on Panther Island ever began. The first signs of something being not so right with the site appeared during the excavation process when grass was planted and then died a month later. Subsequently, the grass was replanted and then it died again. Things only progressively got worse from there, as evidenced with workers becoming temporarily sick. Thankfully, there were no fatalities or long-term illnesses that are having to be dealt with.

As a waste management and excavation company, and having worked on numerous Toronto construction sites, we know this is very serious stuff. In 99.9% of cases, Toronto construction companies will work wonders to ensure that a site is safe for workers. Throughout the years, Core Mini Bins has continued to work alongside Toronto construction managers and contractors to maximize safety on-site with waste removal and disposal. For more information on how to keep your construction site safe from waste-related hazards, please contact a representative at Core Mini Bins today.