Final EPA plan would leave some asbestos in Montana town

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Federal regulators’ long-delayed final cleanup plan for a Montana mining town where thousands have been sickened by asbestos contamination would leave some of the deadly material where it sits, in the walls of houses, underground and elsewhere.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s plan released Tuesday for Libby and the neighboring town of Troy calls for asbestos-containing vermiculite to be left behind where it presents minimal risk and can be safely managed.

Yet some Libby residents worry the material would eventually escape. An EPA research panel concluded last year that even the slightest exposure to asbestos from Libby can scar lungs and cause other health problems.

“We’ve left a lot of this behind in these houses, and you always have the potential of people opening up that wall and running into it,” said Mike Noble, who worked for 21 years for Grace as an electrician and suffers from a lung disease caused by asbestos. He is chairman of an EPA advisory group in Libby.

Noble said for the proposal to work, there must be enough money available in future years for local officials to provide the proper assistance to homeowners, contractors and others who might encounter vermiculite.

The final cleanup plan comes more than 15 years after media reports revealed widespread illness caused by asbestos dust from a W.R. Grace and Co. vermiculite mine.

Health workers have estimated that as many as 400 people have been killed and almost 3,000 sickened in the area.

The EPA so far has spent $540 million removing a million cubic yards of dirt from more than 2,000 properties, and officials say Libby’s air is now much safer.

• Basic Materials Industry
• EPA