EPA closes Libby office as state inks funding deal for ARP

After overseeing more than 20 years of asbestos cleanup in Lincoln County, EPA officials are closing their Libby field office.

Beth Archer, EPA Community Involvement Coordinator, said the agency shuttered its Ninth Street information center on Oct. 23.

All told, EPA officials oversaw more than $500 million spent and over one million cubic yards of contaminated soil removed as part of cleanup operations. Excluding the former W.R. Grace vermiculite mine site, all operable units within the superfund site have undergone cleanup.

EPA officials are still studying the mine site to determine the risk posed by the remaining asbestos. The agency expects to select a remedial plan for the area within the next few years. Every five years, EPA officials will also reevaluate each operable unit within the Superfund site.

As most of the Libby Superfund Asbestos site transitions into a maintenance phase, the Montana Department of Environmental Quality and the Lincoln County Asbestos Resource Program are set to take the lead in managing the site.

On July 1, oversight of residential and commercial properties in Libby and Troy was transferred from the EPA to the DEQ. After a nearly three-month delay, DEQ officials received word that funding from the EPA for maintenance operations was forthcoming.

EPA officials have set aside nearly $12 million for operations and maintenance costs. As part of the 2008 W.R. Grace bankruptcy settlement, DEQ received over $5 million. Each year, DEQ also receives $600,000 for cleanup and long-term maintenance costs. $120,000 of this yearly allowance automatically goes into a trust account, which had a balance of $1.3 million in September.

To educate residents on the hazards of asbestos and aid property-owners in abatement projects, the ARP has received funding from the DEQ. Lincoln County commissioners signed a memorandum of agreement between ARP and the state agency during an Oct. 22 meeting. According to the terms of the agreement, the DEQ will reimburse the ARP up to $600,000 for costs incurred between July 1, 2020, and May 31, 2022. DEQ officials acknowledged, however, that the aforementioned amount is insufficient to cover the ARP’s budgeted needs.

The agency and the program have agreed in good faith to revisit funding needs in the future.

At a Sept. 24 meeting of the Libby Asbestos Superfund Oversight Committee, ARP officials said they had already seen three residents complete asbestos testing on their properties. According to Jason Rappe, DEQ project officer, the ARP was working with six property owners who were at various stages of sampling and abatement. The project costs were expected to range from $1,330 to up to $30,000.

Many residents count on reimbursements from the DEQ or the EPA as the costs of sampling and cleaning up asbestos can be crippling.

“Not many property owners can afford abatement contractors out of pocket,” said Virginia Kocieda, director of the ARP.