Port to seek independent delisting

Lincoln County Port Authority executive director Tina Oliphant told the Lincoln County commissioners last week the port is working with the Environmental Protection Agency to remove the 400-acre property from the agency’s National Priority List. The goal, she said, is to make the property eligible for Brownfields grants for redevelopment.

Brownfields grants are intended to help government entities, non-profits and communities redevelopment blighted properties.

“EPA’s Brownfields program provides grants and technical assistance to communities, states, tribes, and other stakeholders, giving them the resources they need to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields,” according to the EPA website. “Cleaning up and reinvesting in these properties protects the environment, reduces blight, and takes development pressures off greenspaces and working lands. EPA’s Land Revitalization program works with communities, states, non-profits and other stakeholders to develop and test sustainable approaches for the reuse of formerly contaminated properties.” 

Superfund site, or properties currently covered by the National Priorities List, are not eligible for Brownfields grants. The port authority property currently occupies two Superfund sites, the Libby Asbestos site and the Libby Groundwater site.

Oliphant said it is the port authority’s intent to have Operable Unit 5, which is the port authority property, delisted from the Libby Asbestos Superfund site and to work with the EPA to redefine the boundaries of the Libby Groundwater site to reflect only the plume of the contaminated groundwater area. The contaminated groundwater area, she estimated, spans roughly 15 percent of the port’s 400 acres.

The first step in the process, Oliphant told the commissioners, is the release of the agency’s final record of decision for the Libby Asbestos Superfund Site. The decision was expected to be released some time in December 2015, but the agency has experienced unspecified delays. As of Friday, Jan. 29, no updates were available about an anticipated release date.

Once the record of decision is released, the port authority will work with an outside technical contractor and additional legal counsel to help develop effective institutional controls and create a guidance and management document for the proper handling of asbestos-contaminated material, should any be found during work on the property. 

She said the port was working with the firm of Browning, Klaczyc, Berry & Hoven P.C. to review possible deed restrictions and covenants related to the institutional controls. She was also working with TriHydro Corporation for the technical side of the institutional controls and a 30-year forecast of management costs and possible contaminant removal costs.

The party responsible for the cost of such removal and remediation, should asbestos be found on-site, was undefined during the meeting, but Oliphant suggested to the commissioners that part of the $11 million fund allocated for the operations and maintenance phase of the Superfund project could be “carved off” for use at the port authority.

The second part of the project would be to redefine the boundaries of the groundwater site. Port authority operations director Brett McCully said the groundwater plume is only about 15 percent of the property, so the EPA should be able to separate the plume from the rest of the property, which would then make the property eligible for Brownfields grants. Additionally, Oliphant said she hopes to be able to separate the soil surface from the groundwater and to possibly delist that from the groundwater site.

Such a delisting, she said, would likely require the port to agree to a permanent ban on the drilling of wells on the property, which will force additional infrastructure development, and by extension, tenant costs at the port authority property.