Fifteen years after shutting its doors for the last time, the dilapidated Cowtown Inn building in Fort Worth, Tex., is at the center of a nationwide debate pitting health and safety concerns against local government efforts to tear down abandoned structures.
Cities nationwide are awaiting a decision from the Environmental Protection Agency that could clear the way for Fort Worth to tear down the asbestos-filled inn using an experimental, precedent-setting method called "wet demolition."
If the EPA approves, the procedure could be used by cities nationwide to tear down structures without going through a costly asbestos-removal process.
Environmentalists say the method could expose residents to the cancer-causing fibers in an effort to cut demolition costs.
"This has all kinds of national implications," said Neil Carman, clean air program director of the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club. "There are thousands of old buildings around the country in urban areas that people would like to tear down using a cheaper, quicker method.
"But the question is, is it really safer? If this method was so safe, people would have done it 20 years ago. It's not going to stand up to the light of day."
Fort Worth officials say their tests indicate the method is safe. It has already been approved by the EPA for demolishing buildings that are so structurally unsound that workers are unable to remove asbestos through traditional methods, they say.
"We found nothing that would alarm us," said Brian Boerner, director of the city's Environmental Management Department. "While it's important to be concerned about the health of the community, the EPA has two methods that are usable.
"We're trying to show the method we have here is equivalent."
Critics say the so-called Fort Worth method could endanger workers and nearby residents.
Richard Lemen, retired deputy director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, said the proposal needs extensive reviews and additional protections.
"I'm outraged," said Lemen, also a former U.S. assistant surgeon general who has testified as an expert in many asbestos lawsuits on behalf of workers and others affected by asbestos.
"This could be human experimentation," he said. "I've seen nothing about protecting workers ... or anyone else. ... They're trying to pull it off without doing adequate testing."
Steve Baughman Jensen, a lawyer with Dallas-based Baron and Budd, a law firm that handles asbestos-related cases, said the repercussions of the experiment might not be known for decades.
Jensen said he has been monitoring the Cowtown Inn proposal because of the national precedent it could set.
"Tens of thousands of workers may be unnecessarily exposed to asbestos when demolishing buildings, and the communities may be exposed as well," he said.
An initial EPA study concluded that the so-called Fort Worth method isn't ready to be used widely, and it questioned whether residents would be safe. The EPA indicated that further testing was needed.
"The current design and methodology ... is not adequate to demonstrate protection of human health and the environment," said the report, which was released in December.
Fort Worth officials say they are working with the EPA to resolve those concerns.
Under the wet demolition process, a mist of water is sprayed on a building while it is being torn down to keep asbestos fibers from spreading to the air.
The EPA is analyzing data submitted by Fort Worth.
"There are folks adamantly against this approach to demolition and folks that are strongly supportive," said Mark Hansen, chief of the toxics enforcement section for the EPA's Dallas office.
"Our goal is to make sure the demonstration of this method is safe and effective, and the science we collect from it can prove that."
Cities across the country -- struggling with rising costs and increasing numbers of abandoned buildings -- await the EPA's decision.
In the past two years, more than 166,000 buildings with asbestos have been demolished or renovated nationwide, according to the EPA's National Asbestos Registry System.
Detroit had torn down more than 18,000 condemned buildings as of 2001 -- at a cost of more than $65 million -- but still had thousands of substandard buildings left, according to a Fort Worth study.
Philadelphia has at least 25,000 abandoned buildings, and Baltimore about 15,000, according to the study.
Researchers for Miami University of Ohio and the University of South Carolina found more than 91,000 abandoned buildings that needed to be torn down in 35 cities, according to the EPA's December report.
A majority of those buildings probably have asbestos, the EPA said.
A favorable ruling from the EPA could save those cities millions of dollars. In Fort Worth, officials estimate that the city could save as much as 70 percent on demolitions.
"The communities can't afford to remove them, so they sit there vacant for years and years," Hansen said. "A number of communities could benefit from this." Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram