EPA to wind down operations in Libby within three years

by Phil Johnson
| June 17, 2014 12:23 PM

Since 2000, the Environmental Protection Agency has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to remove toxic asbestos from homes and businesses in Lincoln County, but officials now say they are within three years of completing large scale, on-the-ground operations.

Community leaders in Lincoln County are concerned that local taxpayers will foot the bill of remaining cleanups after the EPA finishes the bulk of its work.

“We don’t know how clean is clean and how dirty is dirty,” Commissioner Tony Berget said. “We realize asbestos will be here for the long haul, but how do you clean up what you don’t understand? The EPA has done a really good job, but we want to make sure the onus does not fall on taxpayers. The state of Montana is making statements to that effect. Remember, Lincoln County did not get to negotiate with W.R. Grace. The state did.”

A June 2008 settlement resulted in the payment of $250 million to the EPA from W.R. Grace & Co., which worked to cover up the hazards of the material its employees produced and shipped around the world for decades, to address the contamination in Libby. The EPA believes all asbestos inspections in Lincoln County, which began in 2000, could be completed by the end of 2015. More than half of the 8,200 properties in Libby and Troy have been inspected. Slightly more than 2,000 properties have been cleaned. Even more have been inspected with the determination that no cleanup was required.

But the possibility remains that thousands of additional property cleanups, including more than 1,000 return visits to sites previously believed to be clean, will be necessary. There is also the fact that the EPA still does not know exactly how harmful Libby’s asbestos is to humans.

“We have not done the risk assessment yet, because we don’t have toxicity values,” Deborah McKean, EPA’s Region 8 toxicology and human health risk assessment chief, said of Libby Amphibole Asbestos. “This risk assessment is different than most Superfund sites. Usually, we do a risk assessment before a cleanup to determine if a cleanup is necessary. We’ve been doing 10 years of cleanups here. The question is have we finally achieved a level of exposure that is reasonable and acceptable and we can call it done.”

A risk assessment is typically a first step for an EPA Superfund site before any cleanup activities begin. Libby is home to the largest Superfund site in the nation’s history. The asbestos produced in Libby was shipped around the country and remains in millions of homes today.

“We’ve been working to define toxicity values for a number of years,” said Rebecca Thomas, EPA project manager for the Libby Asbestos Project. “It has gone through a very rigorous scientific, peer-review process. Following an interagency review, we believe the numbers will be finalized by October 2014. We will then use the toxicity numbers to complete the risk assessment by winter.”

Without an understanding of how harmful Libby’s asbestos is, concerns remain that cleanups are not sufficient.

“We have some degree of confidence that our removals have been protective,” Thomas said.

From 2002-2006, EPA inspected 1,368 properties by taking five samples. The standards for inspection changed in 2007 when the EPA began taking 30 samples. A study is currently underway to determine if the five-point inspection was good enough. If not, Thomas said there could be as many as 2,300 investigations to go.

Asbestos is a naturally occurring within vermiculite. Not all vermiculite contains asbestos.

Going forward, Thomas said the EPA will always have a presence in Libby. So will the asbestos, she said.

“Contamination will be left behind,” Thomas said. “In some sense EPA will never leave,as long as there is contamination in place. If nothing more, we will conduct five-year reviews. Part of that is looking at effectiveness of institutional controls.”

Mark Peck, a candidate for county commissioner, said the transfer of responsibilities from the EPA to state and local government agencies is a major concern.

“It’s huge,” Peck said. “I know there are millions of dollars set aside for operation and maintenance. We are concerned about what the county will be left holding the bag on if this thing is not done right.”