Position statement will have no bearing on decision

To the editor:

The Board of Health (BOH) asserts that a non-binding position statement will correct the legally binding language in the EPA Record of Decision (ROD) that saddles you with financial liability for contamination found on your property in this Superfund site in perpetuity.

The BOH was an “800-pound Gorilla” in the making of the ROD, having legal authority through state law and interlocal agreements to speak for the County Commissioners, mayors and councils of Troy, Libby and Eureka, County Health 0ffice and County Attorney’s Office — they are the “one voice for the community.”

The EPA is going to destroy their phony little “position statement” by pointing out the obvious fact that the BOH met for years with EPA and DEQ to scrutinize and approve the language in the ROD that forces you to accept liability for EPA’s deferred remediation. They had responsibility to remove that language and fight for your legal rights of due process, your legal property rights, your legal right to give “informed consent” to accepting liability. They had opportunity to protest that language in formal comments on the ROD.

The “elephant in the room” in this debate is the corruption of the BOH now under Federal investigation according to Commissioner Mark Peck.

Simply put, did the illegal payments EPA made to our County Attorney’s Office, while under contract with the BOH, influence our legal representation in a manner that violated our legal rights in the conditions set forth in the ROD with the blessing and approval of the BOH?

—D.C. Orr,

Libby