The State of Massachusetts Attorney General (AG) recently filed a lawsuit against four different companies for engaging in unsafe and illegal asbestos removal.

This illegal asbestos removal allegedly took place during a complete overhaul of public housing designed for older and/or disabled residents in the City of Salem, according to a recent article at WorkersCompensation.com.

The workers and public were purportedly put in a very precarious position with the way the dangerous material was handled and stored during the process.

AG Maura Healey had the illegal asbestos removal complaint filed in Suffolk Superior Court against E&F Environmental Services of Newton, N.H., and its owner and manager, Frank Balogh.

The other three companies that are part of this action are New England Builders and Contractors based out of Methuen, Mass., Blackstone Block Architects from the Greater Boston area, and TRC Environment Corporation headquartered in Windsor, Conn.

Together, these four companies have agreed to settle the lawsuit’s allegations of illegal asbestos removal with combined maximum penalties of $340,000. The organizations were specifically accused of breaking the State Clean Air Law and violating regulations governing the handling of asbestos products while renovating a housing facility located in Salem known as Pioneer Terrace.

According to WorkersCompensation.com, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection discovered during inspection of Pioneer Terrace in the winter of 2015 a host of illegal asbestos removal practices, as well as asbestos storage infractions by E&F. These alleged violations potentially exposed the public and workers to grave harm.

Simultaneously, while correcting the infractions associated with this job, E& F allegedly was engaged with another asbestos abatement job in Medford, Mass. involving a multi-family home. During this abatement process, the company was allegedly found to be lax when it came to meeting the safety requirements firmly established by state law pertaining to asbestos removal.

In a second part of the illegal asbestos removal complaint, false claim allegations were brought against the second and third defendants—New England Builders and Contractors and Blackstone Block Architects.

These agencies supposedly put claims in for payment to the Salem Housing Authority that insisted all work at Pioneer Terrace was completed according to legal specifications.

The terms of the new settlement allow for a partial suspension of payment if employees are trained on the details of safe and legal asbestos abatement. E&F came to a payment agreement of $150,000 up front with an additional $20,000 put on hold pending training completion by their staff and its owner and manager.

New England Builders and Contractors will pay $85,000 up front and have another $15,000 held off for this training as well.

TRC Environmental Corp. and Blackstone Block Architects will pay $60,000 and $45,000 respectively to the state in settlement fines. TRC is also required to send one of its employees for asbestos removal training at their expense as part of the agreement.

Since the fall of 2016, the AG’s office with the Department of Environmental Protection has collected more than $2 million in penalties for illegal asbestos removal. The effort to clean up unsafe asbestos removal practices in the state is part of a clean air initiative announced by the office last month.