Photo by Lester Smith
Vans from Main Enterprises, the company that provided and installed the new HVAC systems in the old and new parts of the Kent Memorial Library last year, returned in early October to replace faulty components.
For many impatient library patrons, it was encouraging to see a couple of trucks from HazPros, the hazardous materials specialists, parked at the library on November 13. The long-awaited pilot test was beginning. This is the series of PCB measurements to be made in the library gallery to determine whether the mitigation effort being evaluated in that room would satisfactorily reduce the air-borne PCB contamination if applied throughout the building. Many months ago, experiments on a small region of the gallery ceiling had led to the choice of scraping as the preferable way to remove the contaminated coating.
The pilot test itself was delayed by the discovery of troublesome malfunctions in the newly installed HVAC systems. Several faulty reversing valves were replaced in October. (These valves are key elements in the new HVAC systems, in which the AC units can operate as air-source heat-pump heaters when appropriate, for greater efficiency). But the pilot testing was further delayed when problems were found in the compressors.
At the Observer’s mid-November deadline, the first stage of the pilot testing was scheduled to have begun already under static HVAC conditions. Reportedly, the HVAC systems can function well enough for the operating conditions necessary for the non-static phases of the test. The full ceiling of the gallery was to be cleared and scraped between phases of the test, and an epoxy coating applied to encapsulate the scraped surface. The walls (not scraped) will also be coated. Testing was to be completed before the end of November, with preliminary results available by the end of December.
So far, it’s still unclear how funding will be provided for the building’s full remediation when, as one hopes, the pilot test determines that the chosen remediation method does its job.
On November 14 there was to be a meeting at the library building with all parties involved in the HVAC system to determine the root cause of the system failures. It has not yet been determined whether legal action will be taken to recover the cost of the delays and to pay for the HVAC repairs required so early in the new systems’ operational lives.