The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality is fining a Bend abatement company for what the agency says was improper handling of asbestos during the ongoing remodel of Redmond High School.

Alpine Abatement Associates faces a $4,500 fine, according to the DEQ. The company has appealed the penalty.

The DEQ requires that abatement workers dampen asbestos-laden debris and seal it in thick plastic bags. Doing so keeps fragments of asbestos from becoming airborne, where they can be a danger to people. Frank Messina, an air quality specialist with the agency in Bend, said he found four or five open bags of asbestos-containing material during a February inspection of the school.

“When I was there, there wasn’t enough water in the material I observed,” he said.

Jack Billings, president of Alpine Abatement Associates, disagrees. He contends that the company was using enough water in the cleanup.

“All the air tests showed there were no fibers released,” he said.

The company has been in business in Bend for about 25 years, Billings said, and deals with asbestos almost every day.

Asbestos is a naturally occurring fibrous mineral that is durable and heat resistant, according to the DEQ. Those traits led to the use of asbestos in building materials throughout the 1900s.

Exposure to asbestos fibers may cause lung health problems and its use in buildings has decreased significantly since the 1970s, according to DEQ. It often becomes an issue during a remodel, when it’s sometimes uncovered.

The bags noted in the fine were in a sealed-off section of the school and weren’t a health concern, said Jenny Root, an environmental law specialist at the DEQ office of compliance and enforcement in Portland.

“We (want) to make sure that people know that there wasn’t exposure to students or teachers,” Root said.

Redmond High is in the midst of a $9.3 million remodel planned to put it on par with Ridgeview High School, a new school that opened in Redmond at the start of the school year.

The remodel started this past summer and covered two main phases over the school year, said Kelly Richard, spokeswoman for the Redmond School District. From the start of school until the winter holiday break, half of Redmond High was closed while construction workers remodeled the other half. Students and teachers then moved into the remodeled section of the school while the construction workers overhauled the rest of the school.

Alpine Abatement Associates was removing a fireproof coating that had been sprayed onto structural steel in the ceiling of the school, Richard said. The school was originally built in 1971.

The asbestos-laden material came from classrooms in the southeast corner of the school, Messina said. The DEQ sent a letter to Alpine Abatement Associates on May 9, informing the company of the fine.

In his May 21 appeal to DEQ, Billings was brief. He said the company was requesting a contested case hearing for the fine. He said he hadn’t heard back from the DEQ yet as to when he’ll have a hearing.

Richard said the school district still plans to use the company as a contractor.