From The Hill newsletter:
Capitol utility tunnels could collapse, labor officials warn
By Jackie Kucinich
The legislative branch’s Office of Compliance (OoC) has filed an Occupational Safety Health Administration complaint against the office of the Architect of the Capitol, warning that the agency is allowing employees to operate in dangerous, rotting tunnels that run under the Capitol complex, according to union officials.
The complaint is the first filed by the OoC since it was created in 1995 by the Congressional Accountability Act to administer and enforce legislative-branch employee rights and worker standards. The office filed the complaint late last month, according to labor officials.
The tunnels in question contain pipes running from the Capitol Power Plant to the Capitol campus and surrounding areas, providing steam to heat and cool the Capitol, the House and Senate office buildings and other facilities.
The miles of tunnels are in such a dilapidated state that they are subject to cave-ins that could trap and injure employees who are working in them, according to Carl Goldman, executive director of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 2910, and Nan Ernst, a representative for the union local at the Library of Congress.
“Some of the tunnels are 100 years old,” Ernst said. “Those who do the maintenance on the pipes are subject to injury. They have no unions there to protect them. We are concerned about our co-workers there being subjected to those conditions.”
She added that in addition to the potential for cave-ins, the tunnels are lined with carcinogenic asbestos.
An OoC spokesperson confirmed that the agency had filed the complaint about the tunnel system and that it is the first formal OSHA complaint the office has filed. The OoC had issued a citation against the Architect of Capitol for failing to maintain the aging infrastructure in December 2000. The spokesperson declined to comment further about the complaint. AoC spokeswoman Eva Malecki said the agency has been in the process of repairing the tunnels since the 2000 citation.
“The AoC is taking a comprehensive approach to addressing the existing issues in the tunnels and is identifying a logical sequence to the necessary actions so that work that is done does not further exacerbate or ignore related issues,” she said in a written statement.
Malecki added that since the 2000 citation the AoC has taken several steps to improve conditions in the tunnels. She said the agency repaired 600 feet of the tunnel under Constitution Avenue, contracted for an inspection of 19 tunnel egress points and developed an “egress-improvements work plan.” She noted that the AoC has continued to make improvements on damaged ceilings.
The AoC has also included $1.75 million in its fiscal year 2007 budget request “to fund priority project involving the tunnels,” Malecki said.
In addition, she said, the AoC has submitted a $1.8 million reprogramming request to “initiate structural repairs, asbestos abatement and emergency-egress repairs in the tunnels” and indicated that when the funding is available the work will begin. Malecki stressed that the heating and cooling of the Capitol facilities has not been affected.
“The tunnel work, while important, is prioritized along with projects in the U.S. Capitol building and the House and Senate office buildings, in which thousands of people work and visit each day, as well as additional fire, life-safety and security projects,” she said.
In 2005, the AoC submitted a “hazard-mitigation plan” to the OoC that “identifies the interim and long-term actions required to abate the tunnels tunnel issues.” It also submitted monthly updates and met with the OoC general counsel to ensure progress was being made on the project.
“Given the OoC complaint, the AoC will now be forced to respond in the litigation process to an OoC hearing officer,” Malecki said.
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