EPA: Libby is safe from asbestos

Libby is safe.

That is the message being sent by representatives of the Environmental Protection Agency after Monday’s release of the long-awaited Libby amphibole asbestos health risk assessment and toxicity values.  

Agency project manager for Libby, Rebecca Thomas, with senior toxicologist Dr. Deborah McKean, said the newly released information validates the cleanup work that has been performed by the agency on approximately 2,000 properties in Libby during the past decade.

Thomas indicated that the agency will be going back to some properties cleaned in 2005 and 2006 in order to conduct additional sampling of air quality to determine if more work needs to be done.

“The cleanup process was just as thorough back then,” she said, “but the sampling criteria was different. We’re going to conduct additional sampling just to be safe.”

According to agency estimates, there are an additional 200 properties in and around Libby that still require inspection and remedial action. That number will fluctuate with the release of the toxicity values and risk assessments, as some property owners had refused to allow inspections of their properties until the assessment phase was complete.

“Since we have been conducting removal actions for almost 10 years, the question in Libby is: has the cleanup and the removal that has been conducted, has it been sufficient or does other work need to be done?” McKean said. “Every time we’ve cleaned up a residence we have tried to communicate with those residents that we have done a particular level of work and that level of work will be reevaluated at the time that the risk assessment is done to determine if it has been sufficient. And that’s the step we are at now. And yes, they have been sufficient.”

The risk assessment evaluates potential exposure to Libby amphibole asbestos for all segments of the population and the various daily activities they conduct, including residents and visitors. Essentially, the two documents determine how much Libby amphibole asbestos exposure constitutes a human health risk and how much exposure risk is entailed in various activities in and around Libby.

In most cases and as a matter of policy, the EPA is required to determine toxicity values and health risk assessments prior to any cleanup activities at a Superfund site. The assessment is used to determine what, if any, cleanup actions are required.

Thomas said the homes and businesses that have already been cleaned, with the possible exception of those cleaned during 2005 and 2006, are absolutely safe with asbestos remaining only in the walls, attics and crawl spaces.

In the case of Libby, however, the assessment is being used to indicate that previous cleanup actions were successful. “If you look at all the different exposures, then we can show that, using the reference concentration, the cleanups we have performed are protective,” Thomas said.

McKean indicated that the cleanups in Libby had been performed to meet criteria previously established to evaluate asbestos air quality in schools. “The risk assessment has confirmed that those criteria are protective for residential exposures.”

The next step in the process, according to Thomas, is the completion of a feasibility study that details the various cleanup options available. That feasibility study, according to Thomas, is already “largely drafted.”

The EPA, working with the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, will select one of the alternatives in the feasibility study to create a proposed remediation plan. That proposal will be open for public comment for at least 30 days, although the current plan is to allow for 60 days of public comment.

After the public-comment period, the agency will issue a record of decision that will detail both the active cleanup and the institutional controls for the long-term management of the properties within the Superfund site.

The institutional controls are a point of special concern to many in the area. Those protocols will determine how properties are to be managed after the active cleanup phase.

The EPA has previously stated that the total removal of all Libby amphibole asbestos is not practical and will not happen, despite promises to the contrary made by EPA officials who first arrived on the scene 15 years ago.

The EPA will leave behind asbestos that is currently sealed inside walls of homes and businesses, as well as buried in soil at depths of 12 inches or more. As buildings are remodeled or demolished, asbestos that is currently sealed inside walls can be released into the air. As land is excavated, the risk of exposure grows.

The institutional controls are restrictions and regulations put in place to deal with those contingencies after the agency finishes the active cleanup and leaves the area. At a meeting held last month, many residents expressed concerns about the potential of overbearing regulations that could restrict what property owners can do with their property or that could adversely impact market values.

The agency will be conducting three public meetings this week to discuss the risk assessment and the toxicity values. Those meetings will be from 7 p.m. until 9 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday in the Ponderosa Room of Libby City Hall and from 7 p.m. until 9 p.m. Wednesday at the Kootenai Senior Center in Troy.