Can the EPA and residents come to a consensus about cleanup prioritization?

Editor's Note: This is part two of the four part series looking at the Project Priority Matrix developed by

Paul Peronard of the EPA to explain the complexities of prioritizing the EPA cleanup projects for 2008.

The most exciting entourage to descend on Libby in the last eight years was the group of Environmental Protection Agency scientists who presented their action plan for the toxicology studies that will be conducted over the next three to four years.

These are the studies that Sen. Max Baucus said should have been done, and were not until the Inspector General intervened to request the studies. Paul Peronard, Team Leader from Region 8, says if he could go back and do anything differently in the cleanup of Libby, it would have been to immediately ask for a toxicology study.

"Mistakes may have been made, but if the studies show we spent too much, or cleaned too much, then great! On the other hand, if we find we did not do enough, at least what we did was still better than doing nothing."

The public was invited to meet with the scientists and view their poster presentations that were somewhat simplified for laymen understanding. Less than a dozen individuals took advantage of this opportunity.

The Libby Community Advisory Group (CAG), which offers EPA the opportunity to consider community preferences for site cleanup and remediation, is seeking more members. Bill Patten, CEO at St. John's Lutheran Hospital, has worked with Gerald Mueller, CAG facilitator, to put together a Power Point presentation explaining CAG's history and the current cleanup matrix.

Members of CAG will be taking this presentation to various groups and organizations in Libby. CAG was initially made up of 27 individuals with diverse community interests. There are now 11 CAG members and although some titles have been changed to suggest diversity, the representation is narrower.

Peronard, like another Paul, who was asked not to make so much noise as he alarmed the countryside on his midnight ride, has not lost sight of his mission, in spite of his critics.

He took time from his busy schedule to respond to charges that the EPA has become a "cash cow," and he did not dispute the fact that a lot of money is in Libby because of the EPA presence. However, he reminded his critics that in the beginning of the cleanup those same individuals that are accusing local contractors of milking that cow were the ones who demanded EPA hire locals for the cleanup work.

For those who question how economic development and health risks can be discussed in the same cleanup plan, Peronard said when the EPA administrator was in Libby in August, economic development was on the list of concerns presented for Mr. Johnson's consideration.

In response to claims that the matrix decisions have already been made and the purpose of presenting it to the public is to bait and switch, a deflection and division, Peronard just clamped his teeth together and shook his head.

The matrix is merely a tool to help identify the variables which are:

risks, community value, individual/family impact, economic value, cost to clean and the ability to reduce risk.

What should have priority, a cleanup of approximately 200 houses where exposure is a fact and the frequency of the exposure can be high; or a cleanup of contaminated creeks in the area with asbestos laced rocks handled by our kids as they move them around to create swimming holes; or a cleanup of greens and tees at the Cabinet View Country Club where exposure to workers and golfers is likely; or a cleanup of some Troy properties with higher potential for exposure than those in Libby?

Also in the budget are ERS, cleanups due to accidents, etc., and demolitions, such as after a structure fire.

What then are the determinates of risk? How is value defined? Can a community share a value?

Patten says Libby may never reach a consensus, but he also says the only way this community can move forward is to leave the past behind. Others say we cannot leave the past behind because it is a deadly fiber.