Commissioners review state plan consolidating work on Superfund site
Lincoln County commissioners scrutinized a proposal to consolidate operations and maintenance work for most operable units in the Libby Asbestos Superfund Site under one plan last week.
In a letter delivered Sept. 15, George Jamison, superfund advisor to the board of commissioners, said the state Department of Environmental Quality had drafted a sitewide operations and maintenance plan that would supersede plans already in place for individual operable units.
Commissioner Brent Teske (D-1) said he had combed through the document carefully, noting he had faced difficulties in dealing with the EPA and DEQ in issues including the Libby Groundwater Contamination site in his former position as mayor.
“Didn’t use to be like that,” he said. “I used to think these guys had our best interests in mind until I started dealing with them on some other aspects.”
DEQ’s operations and maintenance plan would lump together all but two of the site’s eight operable units. The plan includes Operable Unit 1, which consists of Riverfront Park and the surrounding area. Operable Unit 2 covers land near Highway 37 contaminated by the former screening plant. Operable units 4 and 7 delineate residential, commercial, industrial and public properties in and around Libby and Troy. Operable Unit 5 covers Lincoln County Port Authority land. Operable Unit 8 includes roadways and highways between Libby and Troy.
Operable Units 3 and 6, which correspond to lands in and around the former W.R. Grace vermiculite mine and the BNSF corridor, are not included in the state’s plan.
The purpose of the plan is to provide a unified approach to dealing with ongoing work throughout the site, according to Jamison’s letter.
“Overall, the sitewide document should be an improvement of the separate differing, existing plans,” wrote Jamison.
While Commissioner Jerry Bennett (D-2) said it would be beneficial to have a unified operations and maintenance plan, he indicated that some sections of the superfund site would require special attention.
“That’s probably going to be our goal in the comments that we don’t want to be locked into those guidelines when there are differences in the [operable units],” he said.
Bennett was particularly interested in how the state would handle the maintenance shop in Operable Unit 5. He said workers had tried to seal wall cracks in the building using cases of hand foam. As the foam degraded it was starting to fall out.
“The remedy isn’t the best,” he said.
Teske said commissioners should also scrutinize how the plan would dole out responsibility among different parties.
DEQ officials have collaborated with the port authority and the Lincoln County Asbestos Resource Program to develop the draft. Along with sharing the draft with commissioners, the state agency has provided copies to the county board of health and representatives of various operable units.
“We are appreciative of their giving us this opportunity ahead of a more formal review,” said Jamison.
The ongoing review of the draft should be wrapped up by the DEQ’s requested deadline of Oct. 1, according to Jamison’s letter. He requested that Libby and Troy commissioners send their comments to him or the asbestos resource program by the end of the week so officials could compile them into a single response this week.