The Van Ness South Tenants Association today sent a letter to Equity Residential, requesting that it stop work on the exterior façade of 3003 Van Ness until the company can implement procedures to control silica dust that video shows is being spewed into the air.
The letter from VNSTA president Harry Gural begins:
“I am writing again to express our concern about silica dust generated by the concrete work on the façade of 3003 Van Ness. Recent video shows clouds of fine concrete dust spewing into the air – clearly without the vacuum dust-mitigation system that in your letter of January 27, 2022 you claimed were in use. That letter, along with our first letter about this issue, are appended below.
Residents have reported such dust on numerous other occasions and have never seen the “dustless shrouds and HEPA vacuum systems” that you promised in your letter. We remember Equity Residential’s similar false assurances in 2013 when it did work on the concrete balconies and ended up being fined by the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs for failing to contain the silica dust. At the time, we recorded similar video of clouds of dust spewing into the atmosphere.”