Danger lurks below U.S. Capitol

Lisa Myers Senior investigative correspondent • Profile

WASHINGTON - Inside tunnels that snake their way for miles, huge slabs of concrete fall from ceilings and white powder coats some pipes and floors. But it’s not all dust. Much of it is asbestos — harmful fibers that can scar lungs and, potentially, cause death. Ten men work down in these tunnels every day, where temperatures often exceed 150 degrees. They call themselves “the tunnel rats.”

Federal investigators recently found that conditions in the tunnels pose an “imminent danger” to the workers, and that the owner of the tunnels had “effectively ignored” safety warnings for six years. So who owns these tunnels? The United States Congress.

The labyrinth of six tunnels — some of them nearly 100 years old — provide steam and chilled water to Congress and other federal buildings, including the Library of Congress and the Supreme Court. Four of the 10 tunnel workers — interviewed by NBC News — believe they have been exposed to asbestos and have worked under extremely dangerous conditions.

Documents obtained by NBC News show that since 2000, Congress — specifically the Architect of the Capitol, responsible for the maintenance of the tunnels — has been warned of asbestos and other “potentially life threatening safety and health violations” in the tunnels. Yet a recent inspection found little had been fixed.

“There had been some improvement in some areas, but basically it was worse than we found it before,” says Peter Eveleth, general counsel in the Office of Compliance, in charge of health and safety oversight of Congress.

The oversight office’s initial investigation was sparked by complaints from workers about the poor health and safety conditions in the tunnels.

“We interviewed most of the workers and what they have suggested to us has borne out substantially through our inspections,” says Eveleth. “We find them quite credible.”

FREE VIDEO Tunnel workers in their own words July 2006: NBC News obtained this video shot inside the Capitol’s utility tunnels -- to document what the workers say are unsafe working conditions that should have been fixed when the workers first complained about them in 2000. Nightly News

In 2000, the Office of Compliance cited the Architect of the Capitol for serious violations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act. They found that concrete falling from the ceiling posed a serious risk of “death or serious physical harm” to the workers; the tunnels lacked an adequate communications system allowing workers to communicate with those above ground in case of an emergency; and there were not sufficient emergency exits permitting workers to escape in a crisis.

“It was determined that there were a number of locations where concrete was in danger of falling (incipient spalls) and injuring employees,” the citation said. “As of November 29, 2000, these areas has [sic] not been repaired, posing a danger to the personnel who work in the tunnels,” the report warned.

Separately — that same year — the oversight office also raised concerns about asbestos and extremely high temperatures in the tunnels. One June 2000 memo from the Office of Compliance noted that the Architect of the Capitol “needs to take action to prevent tunnel workers from breathing airborne asbestos.” Yet six years later, investigators say the conditions are even worse than they were back then. So last year, Eveleth’s office sent inspectors back into the tunnels to check on the status of the repairs his office demanded five years earlier.

“We found what was supposed to have been corrected was not corrected in many instances,” says Eveleth.

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