Chinese drywall issue gets more complicated as panel reviews facts

About 100 residents whose homes are contaminated by Chinese drywall were given a little good news and a lot of bad news Wednesday night at the Northshore Harbor Center.

The meeting was a fourth in a series of meetings held by state Sens. A.G. Crowe and Julie Quinn to find out options and answers to the problem faced by people who have become sick, or have had to move out of their homes entirely, because of the presence of Chinese drywall. At this meeting, Crowe and Quinn brought along legal experts and scientists who tried to make the issue a bit clearer to the residents.

The problems associated with the toxic drywall were made clear, but the solutions are a bit muddy, because of legal and scientific issues.

There was some good news on the financial front though. Crowe and Quinn said that $5 million have been approved by the Legislature that will go to helping people pay for the repairs to Chinese drywall-tainted homes. Crowe said the $5 million is not a lot, but it is seed money and under the legislation, the amount will grow. The money will be used for people who were in the Road Home program, those that didn’t apply to Road Home and to those that reached the $150,000 cap in the Road Home.

In other good news, Louisiana Recovery Authority Executive Director Paul Rainwater just got back from Washington, with a pledge of $20 million for a pilot program that will get non-profit volunteer groups to help tear out Chinese drywall. Crowe said that so far, 12 of these organizations have responded.

St. Tammany Assessor Patricia Schwarz Core had really good news. The Louisiana Tax Commission agreed to let her reduce the assessment on houses with Chinese drywall by 90 percent. She said people have to fill out an application for assessment review and send it in to her office by Nov. 15 in order to get the reduction. So far, she has given the reduction to 107 homes with the toxic drywall. The forms are available on the Assessor’s Web site, www.stassessor.org. The forms must be faxed to Core’s office at (985)809-8190.

But even with the reduction, and if the homeowners tear out the drywall, they will face other problems.

“It will be very hard to sell your houses,” Core said. “You have to disclose to buyers if there was Chinese drywall in the house, and they may not want to buy.”

Quinn said in a similar vein, she has gotten reports from people that insurance companies are canceling homeowners policies when they find out a home has the tainted drywall.

On the legal side, there is a class action suit filed by people all over the country. Attorney Burton LeBlanc, whose firm is one of the 13 firms handling the class-action suit, said the first trial will be in January here in New Orleans before U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon.

That sounds good, but LeBlanc said that because the drywall comes from China, through a German distributor, it has become an international issue. The only way to serve papers on the Chinese and German companies is through the International Court in The Hague, and that could take awhile.

“I don’t expect the Chinese to really help out on this,” LeBlanc said. “But the German firm has come to court, so it is not hopeless.”

In order for people to get into the lawsuit, they must file a complaint with the U.S. Consumer Protection Commission. Quinn said it is very important that more people file complaints with the USCPC, because for the federal government to take notice, there has to be a large number of complainants.

“I’m talking 100,000, and right now there are only 1,500,” Quinn said.

Also, there is a very long and complicated procedure homeowners have to go through to prove their house is contaminated. However, that brings up the problem of a correct protocol.

That protocol and method of remediation is still being worked out, according to the two scientists at the meeting. Spider Mulholland, a forensic inspector said he and other scientists have been working on the problem, and there are very few answers.

“It’s one of the hardest cases I’ve ever worked on,” Mulholland said.

Chinese drywall is composed of calcium sulphate. However, when dug out of the ground in China, the Chinese do not take out the impurities when they make drywall. As a result, when the drywall is exposed to hot, humid climates like in southern Louisiana, it emits gases, some like hydrogen sulfide, which cause a rotten egg smell and possibly health hazards.

Microbiologist Dr. Mark Wrigle said the problem is that the effects of the gases are not uniform.

“Some people may get sick, others do not. We don’t know the long-term effects,” Wrigle said, but advised people to go see their doctors.

“I still have a lot of questions. It is a complex problem,” Mulholland said. He said that the gases do permeate the wooden studs of a house, and even into cement blocks, making it difficult to really clean a house of the chemical.

Because of the lack of scientific knowledge, it is hard to come up with a protocol on how to clean up a house, and how to remediate the problem.

Quinn said this causes a Catch-22. People may tear out the drywall and replace it, but it must be done by the court’s protocol or they could lose any remediation money from the court case.

Mulholland said his group has come up with a remediation protocol, but it has not been accepted by Florida, Louisiana or the other 24 states where houses have Chinese drywall.

A solution to the whole mess does seem to be way down the road, but Quinn said it is important that homeowners file with the USCPC, the St. Tammany Assessor’s Office and to keep writing their state and federal representatives to keep the issue on the front burner.

“We are working at it from all angles,” Quinn said. “But you have to call Senators Vitter and Landrieu. Don’t drop this. Keep pounding it in everyday. We must make them realize that Louisiana is at a disadvantage.”

Residents who have been denied coverage from their insurance company are asked to fax Quinn at (504) 219-4639, or e-mail her at quinnj@legis.state.la.us. To file a complaint with the Consumer Products Safety Commission, go to http://www.cpsc.gov/info/drywall/index.html. To file a complaint with Louisiana Attorney General, go to http://www.ag.state.la.us/ and click on “Consumer Complaints,” or call 1-800-351-4889. For updates on the Chinese drywall multi-district litigation (MDL No. 2047), go to www.laed.us courts.gov., and click on “Drywall MDL.”