- April 19, 2024
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The Flagler County government has invited the Centers for Disease Control to evaluate the Flagler County Sheriff's Operations Center for health hazards.
More than 30 Sheriff's Office employees have filed workers compensation claims related to the building, which they believe is making them sick.
Initial testing in December 2017 found mold spores, but subsequent air quality testing after remediation has come back clean, and radiation testing has also detected nothing out of the ordinary.
Meanwhile, employees continues to report illnesses, and all have been evacuated from the building. The sheriff has said he is not willing to send them back to it until he hires another expert to test it and ensure it's safe.
The CDC, according to a July 23 letter from CDC Health Hazard Evaluation Program Chief Douglas Trout, will review the county's request and then do one of three things: Call to talk about concerned and send information and recommendations, call and set up a visit to the b building, or send the county's information to another agency if the request is not within the CDC's authority.
The county will hear from the CDC on its course of action within 30 days, according to the letter.
Also on July 23, the firm the county hired to perform radio testing on the b idling notified the county that the building shows normal radon levels.
"The testing showed consistently low radon levels throughout the building, which should be good news," Associated Radon Services Radon Measurement Specialist Kieron Levy wrote in a July 23 email. However, Levy continued, "Due to the high water table, we were unable to complete outside soil testing at this time. The ground was far too saturated in every location we attempted testing. We can try again in the future sometime when it hasn't rained for a good while and the soil might be much dryer than it is now."
Associated Radon Services did take soil samples fro areas around the Operations Center, and can dry the samples and test them.
"Due to the very low readings in the facility and the sandy nature of the soil gathered and state data on the area, it is not likely we will find much radon in the samples," Levy wrote.
