Meeting of meetings
The EPA meeting open Tuesday night at the Memorial Center is being touted as the one meeting community members should attend if they haven't attended a Superfund cleanup-related meeting in Libby since 1999.
I've been to a few — actually just over a hundred — since late 1999. You could more than double that if we add the rest of The Western News reporters.
I don't think the meeting next week will have the same impact the early meetings did in November and December of 1999 and later on when the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry shared the results of the initial health screenings. Those meetings were pretty somber, almost to the point of depressing. That won't be the case next week. We have some things to celebrate such as getting the public spaces cleaned up of potential problems, getting toxic insulation removed from commercial buildings and dwellings and getting a handle on the health problem — although some people here and elsewhere are still in denial.
Next week's EPA meeting won't be boiler plate, that is, it won't go as hundreds of Superfund meetings elsewhere have gone before. After all, this is the biggest environmental health disaster in U.S. history. And I don't expect people in this community will allow the EPA to go silently into the night.
The EPA is working on a record of decision for this project. It will outline what they will and won't do and what they did and did not do as well as what needs to be done and what doesn't need to be done.
And there are some big question marks hanging over this project. I remember Paul Peronard, the emergency response onsite supervisor, telling us that at some point we will be debating how safe is safe. That has been an ongoing question in meetings since November 1999. The scary part is I'm not sure we really know.
On the positive side, the Libby Area Technical Assistance Group is dealing with that question, and they have their own toxicologist to help ask questions and get answers.
Among the concerns being discussed is what about insulation in walls? Another is how clean are the carpets left in houses where leaking vermiculite was removed from the walls? And yet another is how can asbestos-contaminated vermiculite be left in crawl spaces beneath a home? And what about vermiculite left a foot or more deep in yards?
A good question to ask of these people is would they allow this in their homes or backyards?
We know at this time that the federal government will be funding a full-time position to deal with problems that arise after the EPA pulls out of this area - in four to five years. That person would be charged with helping property owners cutting or digging into contaminated spaces. That's understood.
But how safe is it to continue to live with this stuff around us. We constantly hear that it's safe as long as we don't come in contact with it and stir up airborne dust. What if your roof collapses because of too much snow? What if a building catches fire? What if a vehicle drives through a wall? It goes on.
TAG is pushing for more concrete answers and commitments.
While the EPA meeting next week will be informative, and maybe interesting depending on what is asked by the public, the once-a-month Tuesday night TAG meetings in the coming months will be more important to this community.
However, there are too many people here who do not understand what is going on. Especially among our so-called leadership. They need to attend Tuesday night's meeting so they can do something unique such as make an informed decision in the future on this issue. And the residents of Libby and Troy as well as surrounding areas need to be at this meeting so they are informed and can keep our elected officials moving in the right direction regarding the Superfund. That direction is not to get the EPA out of here as quickly as possible. The powers to be in Washington, D.C., seem to be exerting pressure for that to happen. No, the right direction for us at this time is to make sure the federal agency leaves us a clean and healthy community. — Roger Morris