Baucus to bring EPA chief to Libby

Montana Sen. Max Baucus, frustrated over asbestos cleanup efforts, will bring the head of the Environmental Protection Agency to Libby on Monday, Aug. 6.

Baucus announced Tuesday that EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson has accepted his invitation to hold a public meeting to discuss asbestos cleanup efforts with local community members.

The visit is particularly timely as Baucus has turned up the heat on EPA over the agency's failure to conduct the necessary toxicity studies and declare a Public Health Emergency in Libby in 2002."We're extremely pleased," Lincoln County Commissioner Chairman Rita Windom said. "They're keeping the commitment they made the last time they were here."The visit will be Johnson's first to Libby after he assumed the helm at EPA in 2005.

Baucus will take Johnson on a tour of Libby cleanup sites before escorting him to the community meeting, which will be held in the Ponderosa Room at Libby City Hall from 3-4 p.m. "Officials in Washington need to know that folks in Libby, Montana aren't just some number or statistic on a spreadsheet — they are real people who were poisoned at the hands of W.R. Grace," Baucus said. "I want to make sure that the EPA stays on track, that they are held accountable for past decisions, and that they finally get Libby a clean bill of health. I'm angry that, after seven years, EPA still cannot say the town is safe from asbestos exposure. People are dying in Libby. I want Mr. Johnson to see it with his own two eyes."Baucus has continually pressured the EPA over clean-up efforts in Libby. In 2006, Baucus blocked all EPA nominees from receiving Senate confirmation until Johnson agreed to visit Libby personally and expedite a long-awaited study about asbestos cleanup.

Baucus got the past two EPA chiefs, former Governors Christie Todd Whitman and Mike Leavitt, to visit Libby as well.

In April, Baucus held an Environment and Public Works field hearing in Libby with EPA Superfund Manager Susan Parker Bodine.

The Monday visit will be Baucus' 21st personal visit to Libby since 1999, when news reports linked widespread asbestos exposure to illness and death in the small northwest Montana community.Baucus is a senior member and former chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works committee, which has jurisdiction over the EPA. Baucus has been a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works since 1979.