Help on the way for Chinese drywall victims

An enormous red trash container sits in the driveway of Slidell resident Shawn Macomber’s home, reeking of rotten eggs and littered with pieces of wallboard.

Macomber, a contractor, is filling the container with Chinese drywall. He installed it in his home shortly after he purchased it in 2007, when building materials were still scarce in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. With larger sheets of wallboard in short supply, Macomber went ahead with the Chinese product, readily available in the size he needed.

The material was difficult to work with, and emitted an odd chemical odor.

“The salesman told me that gypsum mined in China is yellow, so they bleached it for American markets,” said Macomber. “He said it would dissipate after a while.”

Instead the problem got worse, and earlier this year Macomber, along with countless others around the country learned the drywall was possibly emitting sulfurous gases. He and his family moved out of their Camellia Drive home in April. In May he testified in Baton Rouge at a legislative hearing on Senate Bill 257 introduced by District 6 state Sen. Julie Quinn to address the problem. He was primarily concerned that the language in the bill was too broad.

“It wasn’t specific enough,” he said. “It only referred to ‘substandard building materials,’ but now I believe they’ve changed it to read ‘wallboard made in China’.”

Last week, just a day after federal judges announced that Chinese drywall lawsuits would be consolidated in New Orleans, local legislators met with federal leaders to find monetary assistance for those citizens that have qualified and received Road Home grants and have the toxic substance in their homes.

District 1 state Sen. A.G. Crowe met Tuesday with Louisiana Recovery Authority Executive Paul Rainwater, representatives of the governor’s office and U.S. Senators Mary Landrieu and David Vitter. He requested the meeting last week, after SB 257 stalled and was assigned to the Senate Revenue & Fiscal Affairs committee.

“I’m encouraged by the response of our state and national leaders on this issue,” said Crowe.

“The Louisiana Recovery Authority is meeting with HUD to find a funding source not only for previous Road Home grant recipients but also for those that reached the $150,000 cap as well as those victims that did not apply for LRA grants.”

Quinn’s bill would allow Louisiana residents to collect 100 percent of the damages they incurred due to the defective drywall, along with attorney’s fees, from the manufacturer, distributor or seller of the contaminated product. Currently, homeowners may only collect a percentage of those damages.

Problems with Chinese drywall surfaced early this year, when builders and homeowners along the Gulf Coast and in dozens of other states began to notice unpleasant odors, along with corrosion of refrigerator coils and various other electronic components. It has been tied to a number of health problems, including severe headaches, nosebleeds and respiratory ailments.

The problem has affected hundreds of residents across the Northshore, including New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton.

Payton said Chinese drywall was used in roughly 80 percent of his Mandeville home, built just a few years back. He and his family moved about three weeks ago into a rental home in the same development, and he said they expect to begin tearing out the defective material sometime next week.

“It’s a mess, and the difficult part about it is that it affects so many people that aren’t in a position to move out of their homes,” said Payton. “It affects a lot of people in Florida and Louisiana, anyone who was building after Katrina or the Florida storms.”

Payton said like many others, he and his family would await the litigation, but that it was “good news” that the trial will be held locally in New Orleans.

U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon will preside over discovery and pretrial hearings. A legal conference was held in New Orleans Thursday for representatives of homeowners, builders, insurance companies and government agencies.

Residents in 33 other states have toxic Chinese drywall in their homes. Congress has set aside $2 million for the Environmental Protection Agency and Consumer Product Safety Commission for testing of the drywall to determine the exact nature of its health and safety issues.

Congress will then use the results of the testing to validate the issuance of funds for the victims assuming the tests are harmful. LRA Executive Director Paul Rainwater says that once funds are identified and secured, channeling the distribution of the money through each parish would be the most effective way of getting residents the help they need.

Crowe said he expects a decision to be reached in the next 10 to 14 days.

As for Macomber, he said while his homeowner’s insurance will not pay for the repairs, he realizes how lucky he is that he did not install the drywall in anyone else’s home.

“Mine was the only house I used it on,” said Macomber. “This would have been a whole lot worse otherwise.”