Local woman accuses the EPA of dishonesty

Senator Max Baucus may be circling the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D.C., over the delay of toxicity testing in the cleanup of asbestos contamination in Libby but there is one angry grandmother, right here in Libby, nipping at their heels about the quality of work done by a contractor hired by EPA to remove contaminated soil from her property. In 2000, Vermiculite, amphibole, superfund and EPA, were not part of Laura Wilson's vocabulary but by 2002, when the EPA tested her property for traces of vermiculite with asbestos, she believed she was lucky to have settled on a few acres that had not been contaminated by ore mined in the mountain north of Libby before 1990.

However, before analyzing soil samples, the EPA had to test and assess various methods for detecting and measuring asbestos to ensure that the best testing methods were used. By 2003 the EPA had selected several methods for soil analysis. When samples were analyzed, property owners were sent a letter with their sampling results. Some properties which did not need cleanup, based on visual inspection, were now identified as contaminated based on analysis of the soil in the laboratory.

Wilson's property was one of those identified as needing partial cleanup. She was disturbed to learn the initial assessment was, in her opinion, not done correctly. She wondered if she had been exposed to asbestos during the interim and her concern about the validity of the latest assessment made her question whether she should have her property cleaned or not. She decided that if she ever wanted to sell her property she should have it cleaned.There is a chain of command that takes place when a piece of property has been selected for cleanup by the EPA, which is a federal agency, as is Volpe, with the U.S. Department of Transportation. CDM is a private construction corporation, with consulting engineers. When CDM develops a cleanup plan for contaminated property, that detailed plan is given to the EPA which then awards bids made by companies that will do the actual cleanup work according to the plan developed by CDM. Before the actual work begins a Community Involvement Coordinator(CIC)from CDM, is assigned to help the property owner understand what is being done and to address any concerns the property owner may have about the cleanup before it begins.

In Wilson's case ER (Environmental Restoration) was awarded the contract to clean her property.Wilson said her assigned CIC, walked around the property with her and they discussed what was to be done and how it would be done. One of the things that was agreed on, according to Wilson, was that the digging around her aged cottonwood trees would be done by hand."Things began to go wrong from the first day of cleanup. Small things at first, like leaving my gate open which meant I had to go outside in my pajamas. Then I found cigarette butts on the ground. But when I looked out my bedroom window and saw a large piece of equipment jumping up and down as it wrestled with large roots from my cottonwood tree I got mad," Wilson said. When Laura Wilson left Alaska, and her position as an officer with the Alaska Marine Highway System, it was with a heavy heart. She traveled through the lower 48 looking for a place to call home. Libby felt like Alaska and she found an older mobile home sitting on a couple of acres that she was able to pay cash for. She settled into her little corner of the Northwest on Granny's Garden Road. Despite the name of the road she lives in, Wilson is no little granny. She is a tough, independent lady who got that way fighting off grizzly bears, wolves and sometimes wild men while she lived in Alaska. She is not about to let anyone take advantage of her. "Not even the federal government," she said. Wilson began calling people at CDM and the EPA about the damage to her tree and then she became more alarmed when she discovered that the corner of her barn had been damaged. When she was told that the testing of the soil was completed and that the new fill would be brought in the next day, Wilson told the EPA she did not want anything done until she had a chance to have somebody look at the damage to her tree and the barn. Then, Wilson found what she believes is a new crack in the concrete floor of her barn. She called D. C. Orr, a local contractor, to have him look at the crack. Orr, who has worked in the construction business for over 40 years and has extensive concrete experience, states unequivocally that the crack on the floor of Wilson's barn is a recent crack and is indicative of an impact to the building. "Common construction practice dictates that any excavation adjacent to bearing foundations proceed at a 1:1 slope away from the bearing surfaces," Orr said. "This was not done. The contractor dug on a vertical line directly against the concrete." Orr believes that the bearing soil migrated out from under the slab of concrete, which then had no support and when the corner of the barn was struck with a piece of heavy equipment the concrete slab cracked.Engineers from the EPA and CDM are equally certain that the hairline crack is from shrinkage and they removed dirt from the crack with a pocketknife to demonstrate the crack was not new."That dirt was shoved in the crack on purpose to make it look old," Wilson countered.Unfortunately, documentation of the condition of the concrete was not done by Wilson or CDM before the work began.The EPA states they will, as they always do, restore Wilson's property at their expense, and they admit mistakes are made sometimes, but they deny any intentional damage by any of the contractors they hire. ER workers admit accidentally hitting the building at least once and that corner will be repaired. ER also admits accidentally damaging large roots when they dug past the canopy of the cottonwood with heavy equipment.Wilson is concerned that the EPA's standard one year guarantee of their work will not cover the damage done to the cottonwood because others have told her it may be three to four years before the tree dies, and if it does it could fall on her house. EPA's Remedial Project Manager, Mike Cirian, said he will have a tree expert assess the damage to the tree and then decide what, if anything, needs to be done.ER workers admit accidentally hitting the building at least once and that corner will be repaired. Cirian, an engineer himself, and other experts do not believe the crack in the barn's slab is new.Wilson states she was advised by someone from CDM that she could get a lawyer or even write to her senator or state representative about the crack. She has done that. A packet of her complete documentation and a letter from Orr is on its way to Sen. Max Baucus.Wilson is most disturbed because she believes ER was not supervised properly and she feels that others who leave their homes to stay in motels while their property is being cleaned may not know about damage that is covered up before the owners return. Another family called The Western News with complaints about the EPA during their property cleanup but later said they were 100 percent pleased with the way the EPA took care of everything. Wilson doesn't expect a satisfactory resolution of her complaints and Orr thinks big companies suggest little people hire attorney's because they know the poor cannot afford to protect their rights.