October 3, 200322 yr ESPN.com: Baseball Friday, October 3, 2003 Scientists describe roof as 'slimy' -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Associated Press HOUSTON -- Minute Maid Park's roof is a breeding ground for a group of molds known as Aspergillus -- the same type of mold that festers on overripe oranges. The Harris County-Houston Sports Authority recently hired a private lab to determine what was growing on the thin, white plastic roof of the $250 million ballpark. Scientists testing the roof Sept. 12 found the run-of-the-mill grocery store mold along with a mixture of common yeast, bacteria and unidentified fungi. They described the roof as "slimy," and found evidence that some mold was growing and multiplying. Further tests will determine the specific species and whether the growth is affecting the roof material. "We had to first figure out what was up there," Oliver Luck, the chief executive officer of the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority, told the Houston Chronicle for its Friday editions. Before the authority and the Houston Astros knew what was growing on the roof, they filed a warranty claim with the manufacturer, GenFlex Roofing Systems of Maumee, Ohio, saying the roofing material was advertised as resistant to microbial attack. GenFlex officials have conducted their own testing and have offered to clean the roof for free. Since May, the company and the Astros have struggled over how best to restore the roof to its original white condition. Experts say the next step is to determine what the organisms are feeding on. The roof hasn't been cleaned since the stadium opened in March 2000. The baseball team leases the park for $3.4 million a year and is responsible for its maintenance. Many of the molds detected on Minute Maid, identified loosely through a microscope, are as common in Houston as humidity, according to experts contacted by the newspaper.
October 3, 200322 yr How appropriate that a mold that grows on overripe oranges is on the roof of Minute Maid Park. Maybe the roof is made of orange peels.
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