City to seek compensation for groundwater contamination
The Libby groundwater contamination, a more enduring yet lesser known counterpart to the city's asbestos contamination, was thrust to the forefront Wednesday night as city leaders faced a packed chamber of residents interested in the city's well ordinance and possible compensation for their high water bills.
Federal and state representatives from the EPA, Department of Environmental Quality and Department of Natural Resources and Conservation were on hand to address the issue and provide an update on the site, which was listed as a Superfund site in 1983.
The ground below the city, a complex interweaving of glacial, alluvial and mountain sediments, is tinged by an equally complex contamination of Creosote.
The carcinogenic chemical has permeated the three distinct underground zones recognized by environmental officials.
The contamination was discovered in 1979 when a newly drilled well emitted the scent of Creosote.
Officials later found an elevated cancer risk at the site. The greatest dangers, according to the EPA, stem from drinking contaminated well water, ingesting contaminated soil and eating vegetables irrigated with contaminated water.
The contamination is the result of the former St. Regis wood treating facilities, which used Creosote to protect and preserve wood products like telephone poles.
During treatment, Creosote-contaminated waste water and sludge from treatment tanks were placed in unlined waste pits, according to a report released two years ago during the most recent five year review of the site by the EPA's Region 8 office in Helena.
International Paper Company bought the site in 1996 and now assumes responsibility.
The company has spent millions of dollars to clean the site by initiating groundwater extraction and biological treatment, where bacteria and nutrients are injected into the contamination to biologically degrade dissolved contaminants.
A city ordinance currently prohibits residents within city limits from installing new wells.
However, residents are pushing the city to re-examine that ordinance. They want a revision that will allow well drilling beyond the contaminated area, an area that environmental officials are now mapping.
That would relieve some of the financial burden residents incur by tapping into their metered water to irrigate lawns.
"We don't have an agreement anymore with International Paper, so the city council would be free…to revise its ordinance and to allow other areas of the city to be open to wells for irrigation purposes only," said city attorney Charles Evans.
John Wardell, the director of the state's EPA headquarters in Helena, responded that the idea sounded reasonable.
"One of the purposes of the modeling is to allow you all decide what you just outlined," he said.
Residents who live within city limits, and thus on top of the city's contaminated aquifer, pushed the council to seek compensation from International Paper to offset their high water bills from lawn irrigation.
"Somebody should still be held accountable for contaminating our aquifer," said Cheryl Chandler, who, despite the cost, maintains one of the greenest yards on her block.
Mayor Tony Berget said the city will now work with the EPA and International Paper to come up with a "fair and equitable" compensation to be allotted to city residents.