Nineteen mobile homes once thought toxic might soon get Columbia County approval for residential use.
State and county officials have expressed concerns that the trailers, located at the Arrowood Mobile Home Park on Wrightsboro Road, were among those scrapped by the Federal Emergency Management Agency because they contained toxic levels of formaldehyde.
A test conducted by New York-based Arrowood owner KDM Development Corp. through an independent agency showed, however, that the trailers met safety regulations, said Columbia County Development Services Director Richard Harmon.
"The laboratory analysis for formaldehyde indicate that all the samples are well below the 0.1 parts per mil- lion that the U.S. (Environmental Protection Agency) considers elevated," Mr. Harmon read from a letter sent to his office this week by KDM Development.
FEMA supplied the trailers as temporary housing for those displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Government tests later found dangerous levels of formaldehyde, a preservative commonly used in building materials, in many of the trailers.
In addition, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development has been unable to provide documentation showing that the 19 trailers in Columbia County are uninhabitable, Mr. Harmon said.
"We have no information from the state, nor does the state have any information from HUD that there is a problem with those mobile homes. None whatsoever," he said.
The trailers are not ready for immediate occupancy, Mr. Harmon said. They must be re-anchored before his office will supply Arrowood with a certificate of occupancy.
"Those trailers were required to be anchored in a coastal method with high wind loads," Mr. Harmon said.
"They were anchored for the wind zone we're in, which is obviously much less."
State regulations, Mr. Harmon said, require that trailers be anchored in the manner for which they were designed, not according to the wind zone where they are located.
Once the trailers are anchored properly, and the electrical and sewer tie-ins check out, Mr. Harmon said, his office will allow Arrowood to rent them. He was unsure how long those adjustments will take.
A phone message left Thursday for KDM Development was not immediately returned.
Reach Donnie Fetter at (706) 868-1222, ext. 115, or donnie.fetter@augustachronicle.com.
