Flood repairs await asbestos removal

Asbestos removal has been scheduled for the basement of the Social Sciences/Public Affairs Building during Thanksgiving week, in part to allow for repair of the basement's waterproofing system in the wake of a severe flood in August.

The flood, which displaced the journalism department and the Daily Forty-Niner, followed an earlier leak in May that caused $18,000 worth of damage in SSPA-006, the primary area targeted for asbestos removal.

An independent laboratory hired by Facilities Management to inspect the basement following both incidents identified a number of potential sources for water to enter the building.

In its Aug. 23 report for Facilities Management Director Jeanne O'Dell, Roofing Forensics of Yorba Linda offered eight recommendations to solve the building's waterproofing problems.

Scott Charmack, associate vice president of Facilities Management, said all the recommendations are being implemented, including hiring a contractor to install a new waterproofing system.

The report identifies several problems in SSPA-006 and an adjoining stairwell. These include holes, splits and voids in the waterproofing system and extensive corrosion of stubbed-out dowels in the concrete walls.

Charmack blamed most of the problems on the 20-year-old building's age. He also pointed out that when the building was constructed in the mid-'70s Cal State Long Beach had a policy of disposing of construction records after seven years. Therefore, if any changes were recommended by engineers during construction Ñ a practice Charmack said was not uncommon Ñ no record of those changes would exist.

Charmack said Facilities Management has since "taken charge of our own records" and would keep them permanently.

Although asbestos removal must be performed regularly to meet regulations, Charmack said removing it from the basement, particularly SSPA-006, is a special priority. Leak repairs cannot begin with asbestos in the building.

The August flood forced the Forty-Niner to relocate to the North Campus Library. But the newspaper will no longer be able to occupy the North Campus Library once the New Media Center opens in February 1996. New Media was allocated the entire library long before the SSPA Building was flooded.

Although Facilities Management, Environmental Health and Safety and Vice President of Academic Affairs Karl Anatol have all cleared the basement to be used for classrooms or office space, William A. Mulligan, chairman of the journalism department, adamantly opposed moving the department back in.

At an Oct. 12 Academic Senate meeting, university President Robert Maxson announced that the journalism department would not be forced to move back into the basement.

Maxson's decision made it necessary to find a new home for the department. Anatol delegated that task to Charmack and Marilyn Jensen, associate dean of undergraduate studies.

Charmack and Jensen are due to report to Anatol in about one week. Charmack said a major complication involves the needs of the department's photojournalism option, specifically a processing lab and darkroom. Both require large amounts of water.

"When you use 200-year-old technology for photography, it takes water," Charmack said, "and there just aren't that many places on campus that have as much water as they had [in the SSPA basement]."

Another major obstacle Charmack raised is that CSULB is operating at maximum classroom occupancy. That means journalism will most likely have to displace part or all of another department on campus.

"There is no free lunch," Charmack said.