Citizens hear of potential asbestos dangers in Troy

By KYLE McCLELLAN Western News Reporter

About 80 people packed into the Troy Senior Center Wednesday, April 25, to hear about the potential asbestos danger that may have crossed the 20-mile distance into town from the notorious Libby vermiculite mine during its 70-year operation.

Catherine LeCours, project manager for the Troy remediation project and an environmental science specialist with The Montana Department of Environmental Quality, presented the DEQ's plan for investigating the extent of asbestos contamination and the plan for its removal around the Troy area.

Troy is listed as Operable Unit No. 7 of the Libby Asbestos Superfund site, meaning the area is technically classified on the same hazardous level of Libby. But the DEQ won't know the extent of the contamination until some investigations are done.

Investigations begin this summer and LeCours said they will likely continue for two years. The DEQ will execute the initial investigations at a cost of about $1.2 million.

"We're trying to figure out how toxic it is and what we need to do to clean it up," LeCours said.

During her presentation, LeCours displayed a slideshow with photos depicting the remediation process and held up several pieces of equipment to prepare audience members for what to expect when the remediation team enters homes.

LeCours and her team, a technically diverse group of scientists, engineers and remediation experts who constitute an environmental consulting organization called Tetra Tech EM, will enter properties and begin gathering basic information on PDAs, collecting indoor dust samples and digging soil samples from flower beds, gardens, driveways and children's play areas.

"This may seem a little invasive for those of you who don't wipe down the top of bookshelves or vacuum the back corner of your closet-we like that, leave it that way. Please don't clean spotlessly before we get there," LeCours said.

"We encourage you to be there so we can gather all the information, as well, we want to know if it's necessary that we get into your closet."

A few members in attendance weren't convinced that it was in their best interest to allow strangers clad in white, spacesuit-like protective gear into their homes.

"I've got things to do," said one audience member after he asked LeCours how long the inspection would take. Another member was concerned about the DEQ entering a property she rented, thereby violating her landlord's rules.

LeCours expects the initial home inspections to last about four to six hours, depending on the property size, number of flower beds, separate yard areas, house levels and property structures.

"We're going do a lot of sampling," she said.

According to LeCours and Ted Linnert, an EPA public liaison representative, compensation issues for businesses that incur revenue loss during their own remediation would be considered on a case-to-case basis.

The remediation effort soon to begin in Troy won't strain financial or human resources already working in Libby. The EPA and its remediation firm in Libby, Environmental Restoration, won't be directly involved in the Troy effort.

The DEQ and Tetra Tech EM will work exclusively in Troy.

As for funding, Linnert said more money would come from internal fund shifting within the EPA.

The EPA has not yet received more money from Congress, but it is possible to get "a bigger piece of the pie that EPA gets by working within the EPA," Linnert said.

"That's what we're trying to do."

Ultimately, the power to secure more money is in the hands of the public. As a federal entity, the EPA is barred from soliciting funds from Congress.

The asbestos removal in Libby and Troy receives federal funding because the towns are on the National Priorities List, marking them as areas in need of immediate federal action. Once a site is listed on the NPL, funding becomes available through the Superfund Trust Fund.

According to the EPA, its Superfund program is the most aggressive hazardous waste cleanup program in the world.

If a responsible party can be identified as causing the contamination, the EPA will use legal action to attempt to make the responsible party pay back the cleanup costs. In this case, the responsible party is the W.R. Grace Company, which purchased the mine in 1963.

The mine, about 15 miles north of Libby, produced more than 80 percent of all vermiculite sold in the U.S. during its operation.

At times, the mine released 5,000 pounds of asbestos a day into the atmosphere, which equates to about 130 asbestos fibers per cubic centimeter. According to LeCours, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration sets an acceptable boundary of asbestos exposure at .1 fiber per cubic centimeter.

If asbestos fibers become embedded into the lungs, they can cause numerous deadly conditions, including lung cancer, pleural fibrosis, and Mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer of the lung lining and chest wall.

In 1999, the Seattle-Post Intelligencer broke the story of the asbestos contamination in Libby, forcing the EPA to confront the biggest environmental disaster in U.S. history. At the time, nearly a third of the town's population showed symptoms of lung abnormalities. To date, more than 200 people in Libby have died and many more live with asbestos-related illnesses.