PCB contamination found in King County Youth Services Center courthouse

Employees in King County's problem-plagued Youth Services Center courthouse in Seattle will be moved as soon as possible because of contamination by toxic PCBs that have spread from window caulking to carpets inside and soil outside.

Although the potentially cancer-causing chemicals were found only at low levels indoors and are not believed to pose an immediate health risk, Superior Court Presiding Judge Bruce Hilyer said managers in several departments have concluded that courts and offices for prosecutors, social workers, probation officers and clerks must be moved to other locations while the problem is fixed.

"We're taking this very seriously and we're working on it on an emergency basis," Hilyer said. "Our goal is to relocate the employees out of there as fast as we can so that the remediation can be completed in the most cost-effective manner and in a way that protects the public and our employees. We are scrambling right now to determine literally how many days it will take us to come up with a plan to evacuate the building."

Christine Lange, spokeswoman for the Department of Executive Services, said the courts will be moved within the next several weeks because it would be too difficult and costly to remove hazardous materials while business is being conducted in the building.

"We're not moving because of the health risk" — which is minimal, Lange said — "We're moving because of cost, speed and service delivery."

About 300 people work in the courthouse, Lange said. The windows with PCBs are on floors that house offices but not courtrooms.

The youth detention facility at the juvenile-justice complex at 12th Avenue and East Alder Street is free of PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, and will not be relocated.

The campus consists of the 1952 Alder Wing; the detention facility, also built in 1952 and largely rebuilt in 1992; and the five-story Alder Tower, which was added in 1972.

PCBs were commonly used in a variety of building and industrial products from the 1950s until 1979, when their manufacture was banned.

Workers in the Alder Tower were informed Wednesday afternoon that PCBs had been found and were advised to avoid touching window caulking and to wash their hands after opening or closing windows.

"Fortunately, the level of PCBs found in Alder tower is very low," county Facilities Management Director Kathy Brown wrote to employees. "At these low levels, any increased possible health risk, if present at all, is very small."

Brown wrote that the county has asked the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry "whether there is any cause for concern." She said a remediation plan, "which may include temporary relocation," was being developed.

Court and facilities officials will meet with employees Friday to discuss the problem.

Hilyer said it isn't possible to keep windows closed in the third through fifth floors of the building, where there is no functional air conditioning and where an indoor thermometer recorded a temperature of 94 degrees on July 8.

Hilyer said he was informed of the PCB test results Monday. He said the timing had nothing to do with a ballot issue that goes before voters in November that would raise the sales tax by 0.2 cents on a $1 purchase to replace the Alder Tower and help fund criminal-justice operations of the county and 39 cities.

Facilities director Brown wrote in her letter to employees that PCBs were discovered "as a standard part of predesign work" being done for replacement of the facility, which court officials say lacks basic security features and has plumbing, electrical and heating and cooling problems.

Hilyer said it is likely that juvenile criminal cases will be moved, at least temporarily, to the King County Courthouse, and family-law cases to the privately owned Park Place building in Seattle, where the county has built courtrooms for use in the event that flooding of the Green River shuts down the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent.

The flood risk has been reduced by repairs to the damaged Howard Hanson Dam.

Whether the juvenile courts move back into the Alder Tower may depend on the cost of various options and on whether the tax measure passes, Hilyer said.

Officials provided no cost estimates Thursday but said much of the cost would be offset by rent already paid on the Park Place property and money set aside in the building design fund for possible cleanup of hazardous materials.

Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com