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Excess FEMA housing units sit at a staging site at Mexico Farms near Cumberland on Tuesday. The sale of the trailers are the focus of a congressional hearing that will take place today. Steve Bittner/Times-News
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Hearing focuses on sale process of FEMA trailers
Units declared tainted with high levels of formaldehyde
CUMBERLAND — A congressional hearing on Capitol Hill scheduled for 10 a.m. today will look into the federal government’s January auction of some 102,000 travel trailers and mobile homes that had been declared tainted with high levels of formaldehyde.
Lisa Wright, spokeswoman for Republican U.S. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, said the purpose of the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection is to see if policy that allowed the trailers to be sold in “as-is” condition is appropriate — and what, if any changes could be made to better serve and protect the public in the future.
Further, buyers were discouraged from advertising the units as suitable for occupancy on a long-term basis. The issue hits home in the greater Cumberland region because privately owned land in Frostburg and the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s warehouse at Mexico Farms both were used as storage sites for more than 1,000 travel trailers and mobile homes.
Trailers auctioned in January were sold with disclaimers and warning labels, Wright said. But there is no guarantee current owners would notify subsequent buyers of the risks associated with the units that were used in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana and Mississippi in 2005.
Bartlett, Wright said, “is hopeful the hearing will elucidate answers to some of those questions, or all of those questions.”
Bartlett is not on the committee but is keeping an eye on developments, Wright said. In addition to any policy change that could be affected by Wednesday’s testimony, the discussion doubles as an effort to raise public awareness, “especially among poorer individuals and low-income households about the risks these units pose as well as to provide them with sound medical and scientific data that would help support them in making informed purchasing decisions.”
Gabe Chasnoff said the information is critical to ensure the public, especially the socioecnomically disadvantaged population, is protected from unsafe products. Chasnoff, 29, produced the film “Renaissance Village,” a film about a 3,000-member temporary community coordinated by FEMA during post-Katrina relief efforts. Chasnoff spent 18 months in the village documenting people’s experiences and captured on video a disturbing pattern.
“I don’t know in terms of an actual direct link between extended formaldehyde exposure and cancer, I don’t know if there’s any hard evidence ... but I think, from what I saw, people were starting to get sick. They were coming down with respiratory infections in higher rates.”
Chasnoff said village residents suffered nose bleeds and other ailments commonly associated with formaldehyde exposure. Of the 3,000 initial residents at the village, situated in Baker, La., those who lived there the longest — without means of finding alternative living conditions — “were African Americans from the poorest neighborhoods in New Orleans.”
Brad Carroll, FEMA press secretary, said in an e-mailed statement to the Times-News that his agency “works closely with the General Services Administration to ensure that potential buyers of temporary housing units formerly owned by FEMA are made aware of all air quality testing that has taken place. In the case of travel trailers, buyers must sign a waiver agreeing that the unit will not be used for housing and additional notices to this effect are placed on the unit itself, and the units may not be sold by the purchaser for housing in the future.”
The GSA is the disposal agent for federal agencies’ excess property. According to a FEMA official, the agency has an inventory reduction plan to dispose of excess temporary housing units located at FEMA staging sites, such as the one at Mexico Farms. The goal of the plan is to reduce the inventory “with public safety, efficiency and cost-saving measures in mind.”
Kevin Spradlin can be reached at kspradlin@times-news.com.
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