Hands-on instruction for welding students at Northwest College has been delayed, pending the results of air-quality testing in the Oliver Building, which houses the welding program.

Follow-up testing was ordered after traces of asbestos fibers were found on surfaces in the facility.

NWC President Stefani Hicswa said a roof replacement project on the building (the third of three roofing projects on campus) wasn’t completed before the beginning of the school year.

While that work was underway, the college moved instruction-only welding classes to other rooms on campus, and delayed hands-on welding labs pending a return to the Oliver Building, which has been temporarily closed.

Because pounding during the roofing project caused a lot of dust to fall, “we contracted with Northern Industrial Hygiene Inc. to conduct air sampling tests and sampling of the particulate on horizontal surfaces in the facility,” Hicswa wrote in a campus-wide email on Friday.

“We were being proactive to see if there were any health concerns as a result of all that dust,” she said Monday.

The air sample results showed no hazardous materials in the air, but traces of asbestos were found in samples from horizontal surfaces, Hicswa said.

“Therefore, we requested that Northern Industrial Hygiene conduct additional testing,” which began Friday, she wrote in the email. “We anticipate that we will receive results in a written report the middle of (this) week, which will help determine our next steps.”

Hicswa said she expects results soon, and those results will determine the college’s next steps.

She said she hopes the new testing shows the problem was temporary, allowing the welding program to return to the Oliver Building.

“Best-case scenario, the tests will come back with low levels,” she said.

If asbestos problems persist, other solutions will have to be found.

“Will a temporary facility be needed? I hope not,” she said.

Stefani Hicswa