Health board officially reorganizes
A reorganized Lincoln County Board of Health submitted five primary points of concern to Environmental Protection Agency officials last week in a move to improve lines of communication concerning the Libby Superfund cleanup.
Both the Libby City Council and Lincoln County commissioners last week approved resolutions for the health board to serve as a joint point of contact between the public and the EPA.
“We’re optimistic that this is going to be a plus,” commissioner John Konzen said. “We understand that CAG (Community Advisory Group) is trying to reorganize and also could be an adviser and source for the county health board. We’re not trying to exclude any of them. We would have them come to the county health board so we have a central point.”
The questions were prepared over the past several weeks by the health board with help from the Center for Asbestos Related Disease’s Brad Black and the Libby Area Technical Advisory Group’s technical adviser Terry Spear.
The document showed that it was dated with the first question, “Would the EPA support the declaration of a public health emergency in Libby?”
“The answer to the first question is yes … that’s the only one I’ll answer today,” Victor Ketellapper, EPA team leader, said with a chuckle amid laughs from the audience.
Of course, the federal government did indeed declare the public health emergency on June 17.
On a more serious note, the points of concern included references to:
• Concern over the current management of visible vermiculite-contaminated materials and sampling methods.
• Concerns that the current cleanup strategy is not protective of public health because of a lack of toxicity and baseline risk assessments, and weaknesses with current risk assessment strategies.
• A request to consider community interests in reference to the EPA’s timeline on a Record of Decision.
• A push for clear communication with the public over roles and accountability when it comes to cleanup efforts.
• A focus on building a new image for Libby and Troy following negative publicity about asbestos contamination.
From those five main concerns, the document follows up with specific and detailed questions.
Konzen said the health board plans to meet quarterly but will likely need to increase its meeting frequency. Ketellapper asked to be in the loop on meetings so he could attend.
In other news from the EPA’s meeting with commissioners:
• Mike Cirian, EPA field leader, said on Wednesday of last week that 33 to 35 property cleanups were ongoing, putting the year-to-date total at around 138.
• Biological evaluation paperwork on three cleanup sites on Pipe Creek and Libby Creek were forwarded to TAG, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks for review.
• The EPA hopes to begin activity-based sampling at Libby school sites by the end of this month. Cirian said nine weeks of activities are planned utilizing a single, consistent crew.
• Ketellapper said plans are suspended for an interim Record of Decision that had been proposed for Operable Unit 4 (Libby homes and businesses) and OU 7 (City of Troy). Ketellapper evaluated public concerns and wanted to make sure that toxicity values for Libby asbestos would be included in the risk assessment for a future ROD. He feels the data will be available in 2010 and then the agency will determine how to proceed at that time.
• In OU 5 (former Stimson Mill site), the EPA’s Rebecca Thomas said that over this year, a remedial investigation and feasibility study with alternatives would be put together with the possibility of working on a ROD by December 2010. “But in the meantime, we support what’s going on out there,” she said in regards to re-development efforts.
• Ted Linnert, EPA community involvement coordinator, gave an update on CAG’s reorganization. A temporary facilitator will lead meetings to formulate guidelines and a mission statement and work on hiring a permanent facilitator.
• Two public meetings are expected to materialize this summer but no exact dates have been determined. Linnert said one would be a comprehensive meeting on all of the scientific investigations and toxicity studies. The meeting will occur after the new toxicologist comes on board. In addition, OU 3’s remedial project manager, Bonnie Lavelle, plans to hold a meeting about cleanup efforts at the mine.
• Cirian said activity-based sampling started last week at the former W.R. Grace & Co. mine. Camping, hiking and ATV activities are among the sampling’s components.
Executive Summary
Following are five points of concern from the Lincoln County Board of Health that were submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency. The Center for Asbestos Related Disease and the Libby Area Technical Advisory Group through its technical adviser along with the board prepared questions and asked for a response from the EPA. According to the document, the questions address concerns shared by the Libby Area TAG, the county health board, county commissioners and the mayors of Libby, Troy and Eureka:
1) There is concern of ongoing risk to public health and that the current management of visible vermiculite contaminated materials and sampling methods, including but not limited to – soil sampling, surface sampling and clearance criteria – are not protective of public health.
2) The current lack of toxicity assessment and baseline risk assessment and the weaknesses of current risk assessment strategies lead to concerns that the current cleanup strategy is not protective of public health in general, and specifically not protective of susceptible populations (for example, children).
3) Before moving to a Record of Decision, the EPA needs to consider the communities’ interests and not move on the EPA’s designated timeline.
4) Management of cleanup efforts in Libby and Troy needs to be communicated clearly to the public and the roles and accountability in the cleanup efforts must be clearly defined.
5) A focus on building a new image for Libby and Troy should be started soon due to the negative publicity surrounding the asbestos contamination.