PORT ANGELES – Clallam County’s brief revisit to 1950s B-grade horror movies ended Monday with a report that its courthouse basement harbors no dangerous substances in toxic concentrations.
“Monster Mold on Fourth Street” flopped despite anonymous letters and calls to Peninsula Daily News alleging that toxic spores were attacking county employees.
“I would work in your basement,” was how Alan Olson, general manager of NOW Environmental Services Inc., summed up his report to Clallam County commissioners.
“I would let my wife and my children work in your basement.”
NOW’s 30-page report was drawn from samples it took June 14 following complaints from employees and a positive response from a mold-sensing dog in late May.
Specifically, it said no Aspergillus niger spores were present where the dog had sensed them. Aspergillus – sometimes called black mold – can harm human health.
Olson said his findings didn’t mean the dog had erred, but that the spores nevertheless did not turn up in tape-lift samples his company conducted after the dog’s discovery.
The dog’s owner, Paul Collins of Enviro-Clean Northwest of Port Angeles, could not be reached for comment.
