TAG, EPA working toward complete ROD

By ROGER MORRIS Western News Publisher

Progress is being made to eliminate scientific data gaps involving the Libby vermiculite clean-up and should result in a more complete record of decision by the Environmental Protection Agency for the Libby superfund site, reported the Technical Assistance Group during their Tuesday monthly meeting.

"We were asking for more science," said Gayla Benefield, TAG chairperson.

TAG members participated in a productive teleconference with members of the EPA's Region 8 management team in Denver, she said.

Benefield said the concern was the EPA was rushing toward completing a baseline risk assessment, clean-up plan and record of decision which could ignore change understanding of the science of the asbestos-tainted vermiculite and its impact on health.

Some concern has been expressed with the toxicity of visible but "non-detect" vermiculite in which asbestos isn't readily seen through testing.

"I believe people are listening to us now on how much or how little is toxic," Benefield said. "We still don't know. I feel confident that the EPA will look at this."

Also, TAG is expressing concerns over toxicity of short fibers of asbestos. From the start of the Libby clean-up, the EPA has talked about being concerned with fibers of 5 microns or longer. But Dr. Brad Black and Dr. Alan Whitehouse recently met with Dr. Yasunosuke Suzuki, a world-renowned asbestos pathologist and one of the top mesothelioma researchers in the world, during a visit to Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.

Suzuki has found that short fibers, not long fibers, are found predominately in mesothelioma patients, Black said. Suzuki published his findings in a medical journal during the past year.

"It has been the long fibers that have been commonly credited with causing the disease," Black said on his return. "This is extremely important to our clean-up."

Whitehouse said the discovery leads to a considerable questioning of contemporary assumptions about asbestos exposure.

"We're not going to rush into anything that has final on it," Benefield said of the record of decision.

EPA spokesman Ted Lehnert said the agency is listening and shares concerns with TAG but it needs something "concrete" to work from during the remainder of the cleanup.

Opportunities do exist for a final ROD to be reopened, said Catherine LeCours of the Montana Department of Environmental Quality. LeCours is the project manager for the Troy cleanup, which is being undertaken by the state DEQ.

TAG committee member LeRoy Thom said it makes fiscal sense to clean to the best available level so the EPA and cleanup contractors don't have to come back to Libby.

"We can only make the decisions based on the best information available to us," LeCours said.

"There is enough information out there leave more questions," Thom replied.

Black said Libby can't be treated as just another Superfund site.

"I think Region 8 and TAG are in agreement that this is not to be rushed," Lehnert said.

The EPA hopes to complete the baseline risk assessment by late summer or early fall, Lehnert said. The proposed plan should be done by the end of December and the ROD sometime during 2007, he said.

"There's not a great big race on this thing," Benefield said. "We have some issues that are unresolved and we might have to take a step back. There are science issues that are worrisome."

Mike Cirian, EPA supervisor, agreed.

"We're right there with you," he said. "Everybody is saying we want to get his right."

TAG technical advisor Gerry Henningsen, a toxicologist, said TAG and the EPA working together will help create a better result.

In other business, Cirian reported that the EPA has cleaned 606 total properties with 26 completed thus far this year. The goal for 2006 is to top the 2005 total of 225, he said.

Also, Lehnert noted that there will be a Dream It, Do It workshop in Libby in August and U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns has agreed to be a featured speaker.

And the annual Asbestos Health Fair will be May 13.