Nineteen trailers deemed uninhabitable and labeled as scrap ended up in a mobile home park near Grovetown.
Supplied by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to displaced Gulf Coast residents after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the possibly toxic trailers sit empty at the Arrowood Mobile Home Park on Wrightsboro Road after Columbia County officials denied permission for them to be used as habitats.
"We don't have any approval from any federal or state agency on those trailers," said Columbia County Development Services Director Richard Harmon. "Without that, we can't approve them."
FEMA provided trailers to more than 140,000 families displaced in 2005 by the hurricanes. But government tests later found elevated levels of formaldehyde in many of the trailers. The finding has led to lawsuits by hundreds of former occupants who say their health was put at risk. The first four trials are set to start this year.
Prolonged exposure to formaldehyde, a preservative commonly used in building materials, can lead to breathing problems and might cause cancer.
"We've got some animal data that is highly suggestive of this being a carcinogen, but we don't have absolute, concrete proof" that it causes cancer in humans, said Dr. Greene Shepherd, a toxicologist with the Medical College of Georgia Hospital and Clinics and the University of Georgia.
Mr. Harmon said formaldehyde levels were not the reason his office cataloged the trailers as uninhabitable. None of the trailers came with a federal Housing and Urban Development label, which typically shows that the homes comply with building codes and safety standards, Mr. Harmon said.
A representative from Mr. Harmon's office will meet with an official of the state Fire Marshal's Office to examine the trailers today and determine a course of action.
Many of the trailers initially were auctioned off with the HUD label attached.
The trailers were purchased by a Florida-based broker at a government auction. Though labeled by FEMA as scrap, meaning they were not to be used as residences, the trailers wound up being owned by KDM Development Corp. in Pittsford, N.Y. That company owns 48 trailer parks in 18 states, including Arrowood, according to its Web site.
A woman working in the office at Arrowood referred questions to KDM Development. An employee of KDM Development said it had "no comment" on the trailers.
FEMA spokeswoman Alexandra Kirin said that 1,100 mobile homes and trailers have been sold as scrap since October 2008 and that all had physical damage and were not scrapped just because of formaldehyde levels.
She said buyers must agree that scrap mobile homes and trailers will not be lived in. The word "scrap" is displayed on sales documents, and purchasers must pass along to any future buyers documents prepared by government agencies on the dangers of formaldehyde.
Since December 2008, auctioned mobile homes and trailers also have been spray-painted with the word "scrap."
A spokesman for the Sierra Club, Oliver Bernstein, said some former FEMA trailers that registered high levels of formaldehyde are being used as homes.
"We've heard of numerous cases of these trailers sitting on dealers' lots around the nation," Mr. Bernstein said by phone from Austin, Texas. "We are concerned that these units are still out there."
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Reach Donnie Fetter at (706) 868-1222, ext. 115, or donnie.fetter@augustachronicle.com.
The Augusta Chronicle ©2010. All Rights Reserved.
I understand the formaldehyde came from the glue used when the trailers were quickly built and not aired properly. Check them again before we throw some poor people out of their abodes. I can't help but believe that with time the problem dissipated...if there was actually ever a problem.
People can buy a formaldehyde laden trailer from a dealer and live in it for years, but since these were given to them for free, they are not safe to live in. I used to live in one and it stunk. Let's just remove all the formaldehyde-based products from the home improvement stores. No more pressed wood garbage.
I bought one new in 1974 that had that problem. It was so bad that it made your eyes burn to be in it. A week or so with a fan inside and the windows open solved the problem, and I lived in it until 1982.
formaldehyde is embalming fluid folks, I see another Night of the Living Dead sequal brewing here.
Move em to South Augusta or to down town Disgusta.......
Sneraul that was uncalled for.
that's funny!!
Since it's funny and you thought of it, why not the both of you move into one, then come back and tell us how funny it is.
Riverman, Why don;t you live in one and let us know if you get sick?
Move them to the Hill and then Place them at the Augusta National.
So if they had the federal Housing and Urban Development label, the county would have approved them for habitation, right? Nice.
Mimsy, Riverman1's comment is based on facts. Every mobile home ever built is composed of heavily laden, formaldehyde emitting products. The solution to the problem wasn't removing people from the FEMA supplied housing, it was opening the windows and running some fans for a few days. The danger comes from formaldehyde vapors accumulating in the home because the home is closed.
It is very important to remove the formaldehyde from the home. If this is such a huge problem, why hasn't something been done about/for all the other mobile home owners?? As HillGuy said, formaldehyde is used as embalming fluid.
The point here is that the corporation made a conscious decision to break the law and put profits over health.Now,some of you are going to imagine scenarios that justify their action.Amazing.
Before the "scrap" issue came to light FEMA pawned a bunch of these things off to military recreation areas to be used as rental units for young families and soldiers. There are about 40 of them on the FG Rec Area at the lake and almost every military post that has a campground have a bunch of these FEMA units.
can't be any worse than the meth that the residents would be cooking in these trailers
I think it's ironic these trailers showed up in Columbia County - it just goes to prove that the "trash" Sneraul Yddad eluded to is evenly spread between the two counties. Therefore, leave them in Columbia County - they are obviously where they need to be....
Hold the Company, the Goverment, but not the people who wouldn't fine their own place to live because they couldn'y fine one rent free are not responsible.
I say take a look at some of the trailers being rented across the CSRA and close all of the ones that aren't up to code. Force slumlords to have a yearly inspection after a trailer is 10 years old to insure they are being maintained. That way we are sure that peoples healtha snd safety are trully being considered. Finally, why didn't FEMA cut the trailers in half before selling them as scrap?
You all kill me. The damn problem is not that these trailers have high levels of formaldehyde. Hell yes every trailer has some even stick built homes have some construction materials that contain formaldehyde. The problem is that these trailers were determined to be scrap and sold as such. Now this trailer park company has bought them and refurbished them and can not use them. Why, because a trailer is more like a car than house. There is a title much like a car title. Once it determined to be scrap, then it might as well go to the junk yard. It is possible that the company has aired out the formaldehyde and fixed every other these trailers have, but because they are now missing the required HUD label attached by the manufacturer, Columbia County will not issue a Certificate of Occupancy, therefore they can be used as a residence. It is possible that the trailer park company (KDM) was misled by the they bought from or unaware that the HUD label had been removed. But these will be approved without the label issue being settled.
Regardless of the HUD label and how they got here, let's simply do our county job and see if they have dangerous levels of carcinogenic gases now. I believe these trailers were no different than other trailers. I lived in a trailer a couple of times when I was younger in the Army. Fayetteville and Alabama, by the way. They are economical housing. Perform tests on one of these trailers and check one of the temporary (trailer) CLASSROOMS many schools use and I'll bet they have the same level of gases...next to nothing.
Imagine that more trailers in grovetown...
Watch out those tornadoes tend to follow them trailers
Grovetown,hmmmmm not surprising. That's the part of ColCo they try to keep a secret.
Arrowood isn't even IN Grovetown. May have a GTown address for mailing purposes only, but then, so do I, & I live out towards Harlem. Arrowood is actually about a mile from Belair Rd., next to the cemetary, go figger. Strictly speaking, it's CC and closer to ARC than GTown. Thank you AC for your oh so accurate reporting. Never mind, I forgot, sensationalism sells papers. Nothing beats mentioning Grovetown & trailers in the same headline, except maybe JB & wife beater/ doper/ felon/ breeder/ singer (pick one or two). BTW jack, Grovetown isn't a secret, it's the largest city in CC, Harlem being the second largest.
Better FEMA traliers than a FEMA camp.
What about the poor biologists that have to breathe pure formaldehyde vapors every working day? No wonder no biologist lives past 40!
Little Lamb, ? Please enlighten us.
I was in manufactryed hosuing for over 15 years and mobile homes would sit on our plant lot in the hot sun... when you went inside the formaldehyde was over whelming. We wouls get a basket of apples and slice them up; leave them inside and they would absorb the ordor.
Good to know, jebko. Isn't nature amazing? Would charcoal and newspaper work, as well?
Grovetown=Lil Mexico
Just like columbia county dump the poor in Harlem and Grovetown. When Harlem high had that big gang fight btw bloods and crips. Alot of the kids were from grovetown. Grovetown high when it opens this year probably will be worse than Harlem. But i do see more apartments popping up in Evans and Martinez.