An internal assessment has found major safety, health and environmental hazards honeycombed throughout the massive U.S. Dept. of Interior Headquarters Complex, according to a report released by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The audit team identified a myriad of potentially life-threatening fire safety, electrical and toxic waste violations of federal and District of Columbia regulations.

The audit was conducted from Jan. 22-25, 2007 by Interior’s own Bureau of Land Management and a consultant firm. The final inspection report catalogs numerous blatant dangers. For example, Interior HQ workers daily risk exposure to a harmful array of chemicals, such as mercury, asbestos and PCBs. One central finding explains several of the observed toxic violations:

“Because no system for the proper disposal of hazardous waste or unneeded hazardous materials is provided to employees, the only options available to employees are to abandon these items in various mechanical spaces or discard them illegally.”

The Interior Complex consists of the Main Interior Building, housing an estimated 2,000 workers, at 1849 C St., NW, and the smaller South Interior Building at 1451 Constitution

Ave., NW. Employee health complaints at the 71-year old Main Interior Building have skyrocketed since it began a 10 year renovation project while it remains occupied. As a result of extensive construction activity aggravated by poor ventilation, employees are routinely subjected to chemical vapors, welding fumes and debris dust.

The audit pinpoints cascading safety violations that would multiply human casualties in case of an emergency. For example, fire dangers include ungrounded electrical equipment in wet areas, combustible liquids kept in unsafe places and

co-storage of incompatible chemicals (such as oxygen and acetylene tanks).

In the event of fire, evacuation would be hampered by ob­structed exits, open fire-doors, missing extinguishers, un-maintained sprinklers, poorly constructed exit landings and inadequate exit signs.

“Interior Headquarters is a toxic tinderbox just waiting for the right ignition source,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, noting that detailed departmental safety standards and its “Safety First” motto appear to be routinely ignored. “Regard­less of its rhetoric, the reality at Interior is ‘Safety Last.’”

In addition to safety violations, the Interior Complex suffers from multiple environmental deficiencies, including inade­quate protection of its drinking water from contamination, im­proper handling of ozone-destroying refrigerants and unlicensed treatment and disposal of toxic chemicals.

Although the report was delivered to Interior leadership on January 27, 2007, there is no timetable for sharing the findings with employees or making the report public. The audit report is open to internal comment by a small circle of Interior lead­ership through April 2nd. In the meantime, Interior has neither announced nor undertaken any corrective actions.

“Without intervention by Congress and enforcement agen­cies, these deplorable conditions undoubtedly would be swept under the rug,” Ruch said, adding that Interior could be sub­ject to substantial fines if applicable standards were actually be blamed on powerless mid-level officials – this is a failure by top management, starting with the Interior Secretary and his leadership team.”

OSHA threatened to conduct inspections into the numerous safety violations cited in a Feb. 27 notice to the Interior.

The violations are among the major safety, health and en­vironmental hazards found throughout the two-building Washington D.C. office complex by an internal Interior au­dit. Despite the fact that the audit was conducted in late Jan­uary and PEER provided a copy to reporters in mid-February, Interior is still refusing to release the audit in response to requests from reporters, other agencies and its own employees.

“Like the long-standing conditions at Walter Reed, corrective action will not take place at Interior until these problems have been fully exposed to the light of day,” stated PEER Senior coun­sel Paula Dinerstein. “Just as Defense Secretary Robert Gates took direct action at Walter Reed, the Interior Secretary needs to do his job by holding top management accountable.”

The notice informs Interior that OSHA has received complaints concerning: unsafe storage of combustible chemi­cals, such as gasoline, flammable aerosols, paints and sealers; “Underground electrical equipment in wet areas”; and Jammed fire exit doors and missing exit signs. FSM