Commissioners, EPA discuss vermiculite contamination

By Kyle McClellan The Western News

Lincoln County Commissioners met with EPA officials Wednesday to discuss two prominent vermiculite contamination areas in public spaces within Libby.

One area is on the north edge of the Lincoln County Courthouse lawn. The other lies on the landscaped banks of Flower Creek near Balsam street.

The courthouse lawn contamination, an area about 20 feet by 30 feet, is set off from the rest of the lawn by bright orange fencing.

The vermiculite was discovered there after a snowplow scraped sod off the parking lot's edge, which exposed the shiny mineral.

It was then loaded onto a maintenance truck until a worker questioned what it actually was.

The worker then contacted EPA, which did subsequent testing and found most of the contamination below a depth of 6 inches.

"It all appears to be sub-surface because there's nothing visible even in that area," said EPA On-Scene Coordinator Paul Peronard. "I don't think there's an immediate exposure risk," he said.

Commissioners and EPA officials must now decide how to begin remediation on the lawn, an issue that is complicated by various claims of what is in store for that area.

Plans may include expanding the parking lot, paving over the area or replanting the grass.

The Flower Creek area is under scrutiny because environmental workers found large contaminated landscaping rocks on the creek bank. And though the Flower Creek remediation faces