City-County Health board to EPA: Include community in talks of public health emergency status
The Lincoln City-County Board of Health recently drafted a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency in response to comments it says agency staff have been making regarding Libby’s public health emergency designation.
George Jamison, the board’s vice chair, said at the board’s Feb. 14 meeting that the topic of rescinding the public health emergency has been “tangentially mentioned” during routine meetings among the board, the EPA and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality regarding the Libby Asbestos Superfund site.
“We’re not sure what would prompt that,” Jamison said at the board meeting. “(It) seems worrisome to hear that for a lot of reasons.”
The EPA announced the public health emergency — the agency’s first and still only such designation — in June 2009, little more than seven years after the agency was poised to do so but decided not to due to concerns raised by the Office of Management and Budget. Sen. Max Baucus was one of the primary proponents behind an effort that lead to the eventual designation.
The designation has made available funding for the continued care of area residents whose health has been impacted by exposure to Libby Amphibole asbestos.
Jamison characterized the nature of any discussions as “not well-defined” and couldn’t say with certainty who from the agency had broached the topic.
Lincoln County Commissioner Mark Peck, who sits on the Health Board, said at the Feb. 14 meeting that EPA officials had recently “made it pretty clear they’re not looking at rescinding that.”
“But I still think its prudent that we stay up front of it,” Peck said in support of sending the letter, which requests that any decision to continue or terminate the public health emergency “not be made without community input and thorough vetting of the issue.”
“We would appreciate being part of a thorough examination of this topic,” the letter concludes.
The letter was sent Feb. 15 to Douglas Benevento, administrator of EPA Region 8 in Denver.
Mike Cirian, EPA site manager for Libby, provided a statement from the EPA to The Western News saying that “the site is still considered to be a public health emergency.”
According to the statement, “the (public health emergency) determination made it possible for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to provide asbestos-related medical care to eligible Libby and Troy residents. (The) EPA is continuing to identify and conduct activities needed to complete remedial action.”
Dr. Brad Black of the Center for Asbestos Related Disease, who regularly reports to the Health Board, was adamant in his opposition to rescinding the public health emergency.
“I didn’t know anything about this George,” Black said at the board meeting. “That’s a significant issue if you’re hearing that. It’s like, there’s something that’s rumbling and it just doesn’t sound right.”
Black said the CARD Clinic would no longer be able to provide vital health services without the public health emergency designation in place.
“Because otherwise you’re not different than anybody else in the country that needs healthcare,” Black said.
“We just want to put a marker out there that says we’ve heard this and we’re concerned about it,” Jamison said. “It’s a big decision.”