Sniffling, coughing and weeping, eight Internal Revenue Bureau Employees on Monday told members of the Senate Planning and Environmental Protection Committee how they’ve suffered from the apparent mold problem at the first floor of IRB’s St. Thomas office.
"I have chronic sinus infections, an ear infection and tubes in my ears," said revenue officer Shirley Jones during the meeting at the Earle B. Ottley Legislative Hall on St. Thomas.
All eight IRB employees told stories of numerous visitors to doctors both off and on island to treat ear infections, skin issues, respiratory illnesses, lung problems and many other health matters they believe are related to the mold issue. Some said even their children are sick with respiratory symptoms.
The cost has been both financial and emotional, many of the eight said.
In a letter to Sen. Shawn-Michael Malone, committee chairman, St. Thomas physician Dr. Adam Shapiro said the IRB facility had sick-building syndrome. Patients improved after they were away from the building, he said.
Many of the eight agreed that they now felt better after working at other departments or being off from work on disability.
To further compound the problem, then-IRB Director Gizette Thomas initially refused to give the women the results of air-quality testing so they could let their doctors know the conditions they faced, said John Alexander of the United Steelworkers International Health and Safety Department.
"In the meantime, the workers are dropping like flies but everything is hunky dory," Alexander said.
The union represents these IRB workers.
According to Alexander, IRB several times hired a contractor to test for mold spores immediately after they did a cleanup instead of before. Alexander said he did his own testing, with results that ran as high as 157,105 mold spores per cubic meter. This inside number should be lower than the count outside the building, he said, but the outside reading was 9,867 spores per cubic meter. Alexander said this was during a two-week rainy period in October 2008.
IRB Director Claudette Watson-Anderson, who told the senators she wasn’t director when the problems started, was chewed out by Sen. Terrence "Positive" Nelson for what he said was her lack of sensitivity to the sick employees.
"You’re not the reigning queen," he said.
St. Thomas attorney Robert King, who spoke on behalf of the building’s owner, Sidney Case of A&S Realty, said that when IRB leased the building in 1995, the building was in good repair.
"The government was obligated to maintain the building," he said.
He said some of the IRB workers filed suit against the landlord.
As the nearly six hours of testimony wrapped up Monday, Janice Callender of the IRB said the bureau was looking to move, but it would cost about $4 million. Earlier, Sen. Carlton Dowe said he had a bill to appropriate $2 million for the move.
The problem came to the forefront in June 2008, when a terrible smell began permeating the air at the IRB offices. The mold problem developed because of the building’s location at the bottom of a hill where water collects, said Sen. Shawn-Michael Malone, who chaired the meeting, a sentiment echoed by others. Alexander said that the building is still wet.
"Until the moisture is stopped going in, you’re going to continue to have a problem," he said.
In addition to the mold at the IRB building, Monday’s agenda also included a bill to limit the height of buildings on St. John and issues with noise from garbage trucks.
The senators agreed to hold the bills concerning St. John building heights and the garbage-truck noise issue.
The St. John building height bill would limit the number of stories to three and the height to 60 feet. The senators agreed to hold it so they could have the Planning Committee meeting on St. John.
As for the garbage-truck noise issue, sponsor Sen. Nereida Rivera-O’Reilly proposed that garbage trucks operated by the V.I. Waste Management Authority and those with contracts from that agency be limited to picking up trash from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
The trucks start picking up trash in residential areas on St. Croix as early as 3 a.m., which wakes up residents, she said.
"They cannot go back to sleep," Rivera-O’Reilly said.
The trucks are on the road that early to avoid causing traffic congestion later in the morning, said Steven Aubain, chief operating officer of Waste Management.
In addition to Malone, O’Reilly and Dowe, also attending Monday’s meeting were Sens. Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg, Sammuel Sanes, Patrick Simeon Sprauve and Alvin Williams. Sen. Michael Thurland was absent.
