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Immediate cleanup sought in mining town
EPA finds evidence of asbestos at 2 sites
Wednesday, February 2, 2000
By ANDREW SCHNEIDER
LIBBY, Mont. -- The EPA's first extensive testing for asbestos in this town in the shadow of a closed vermiculite mine shows contamination at a level that requires an immediate cleanup, the agency says.
"We have detected levels of asbestos in the air sampling by the river where the ore was loaded into rail cars, and around the export buildings downtown. The levels are high enough where we want the contaminated material removed as quickly as possible," said Paul Peronard, EPA's on-scene coordinator.
EPA scientists evaluating the findings at the two sites say the contamination appears to be serious enough to increase the rate of cancer by one case per 100 people exposed to the asbestos fibers. More extensive and sophisticated testing will be done by the agency.
The rail-loading site at the base of the mine shuttled ore across the Kootenai River by conveyor belts. On one side of the river there is now a nursery. On the other, land has been cleared for housing lots.
The export site downtown was used to bag the expanded vermiculite, called Zonolite, for shipments. One of the four wooden buildings at the site was used as a research lab, where Zonolite was used to try to manufacture goods ranging from cattle feed to cookie dough. Today, the site is a lumberyard and mill.
Peronard met Monday with lawyers from W.R. Grace & Co., the last owner of the mine, which was closed in 1990.
"We gave Grace the option of cleaning up the asbestos or having EPA do it and bill them," Peronard said.
Grace's representative in Libby, Alan Stringer, says the company will do "whatever is required" by the EPA to remove the hazard.
Peronard and his EPA emergency response team arrived in this small northwestern Montana town in November, three days after the Post-Intelligencer published the first of several articles on the mine. The newspaper documented that for decades, Grace, previous mine owner Zonolite Co. and government regulators ignored signs of rampant asbestos contamination that has killed more than 200 people and sickened hundreds more.
The EPA has taken scores of samples of soil from roads, gardens and homes in the town. Seventy-three air samples also were collected.
Twenty-three of the air samples showed actinolite or tremolite asbestos fibers, the on-scene coordinator said. There are clearly fingerprints of residuals of asbestos left on the town.
Team members from the EPA, the U.S. Public Health Service and the state of Montana are being extremely cautious in discussing the specific hazards in the levels of asbestos detected thus far.
"We are not going to hide anything from these people. They have a right to know everything that we find. But we need to hammer out what levels of this particular asbestos are dangerous," Peronard said.
If the asbestos that is killing the people of Libby were a commercial variety such as chrysotile, which for the most part is imported from mines in Canada and has been used in products for decades, the hazards would be well-known.
But the primary form of asbestos at Libby is tremolite, which is a contaminant of the vermiculite ore. Tremolite has not been extensively studied, although the EPA did two preliminary studies in the 1980s and early '90s.
"From the medical information we've collected thus far, we're comfortable that tremolite is a greater risk as a carcinogen then other asbestos fibers," Peronard said.
On both coasts, other EPA regions are also struggling to deal with tremolite contamination.
In El Dorado, a California county east of Sacramento, rolling hills filled with tremolite have been stirred up by the sprawling construction of new homes. About 2,400 miles east, in Sparta, a small town in northern New Jersey, residents around a stone quarry and mill are concerned about tremolite spewing up the plant's smokestacks.
In contrast with the Denver-based EPA team's quick action in Libby, people living near El Dorado and Sparta have criticized their regional EPA offices for lack of prompt response.
"There is no doubt that there is asbestos in this town and that's enough for us to get our people involved," said Max Dodson, assistant administrator of EPA's Region 8, in an earlier interview. "Peronard will decide what actions to take once they determine what fibers they're dealing with."
Medical workers from the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry in Atlanta will arrive in Libby this week. They will assist the EPA team in determining what risks may still remain in the town.
EPA is carefully examining the structures of the fibers it is finding.
"Long thin fibers are the ones that have greater toxicity and that's why EPA is evaluating the fiber lengths very closely," said Dr. Aubrey Miller, a Public Health Service specialist assigned to the team in Libby.
EPA also completed preliminary air sampling of 35 homes insulated with Zonolite.
"Thirty-three of the houses came back with no asbestos fibers at the length we're concerned with," Peronard said. "We're not telling people that those houses are safe yet, but they are not heavily contaminated."
Levels at two of the homes do concern the EPA team.
Miller says there is a slight increased risk of cancer.
"It's very small. The levels of asbestos are higher than we'd find in homes outside of Libby, but we don't want these people to panic and move out of their houses," the doctor said.
A town meeting is scheduled for tonight so the EPA and their medical colleagues can explain what the initial tests found.
"This is very complex to all of us, so we're going to try to explain it as thoroughly as we can," Peronard said.
Another 125 residents have asked the EPA to test their homes and the agency has already planned to test soil dust and insulation at hundreds of other sites in and near Libby.
The results of air samples that the agency collected at six schools in town will be released later this month. Fixed air monitors will test outdoor air in four locations around town and an additional monitor will be installed to measure air blowing off the mine site, six miles away.
"Lots of people have already died and that's heartbreaking, but EPA can't do anything about the illnesses that came from past practices at the mine. Our job is to find out if people are being exposed to these materials today," Peronard said. "We will do everything we can to identify the hazard and clean it up."
P-I senior national correspondent Andrew Schneider can be reached at 206-448-8218 or andrewschneider@seattle-pi.com
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT 
Day 1
· A town left to die
· It all started with the search for gold
· The History of W.R. Grace Co.
· Dangers of asbestos exposure
· Known deaths from tremolite from Libby mine (graphic)
Day 2
· While people are dying, government agencies pass buck
· 'No one ever told us that stuff could kill you'
· Libby's lost miners: A gallery
· Group organizes to help victims
(newest at top)
· W.R. Grace to pay record Superfund fine
· Finally, asbestos-plagued Libby, Mont., to get help
· Up to 30% tested in Libby hurt by asbestos
· W.R. Grace files for bankruptcy
· Labor Dept. enters Libby's asbestos fight
· Why did dying miners get no help?
· Health warning on attic asbestos
· W.R. Grace buys its old Libby mine, then bans EPA investigators from it
· Grace backs off pledge to clean up asbestos
· Grace sends papers to EPA -- reportedly tainted
· A small group of physicians is trying to change the course of asbestos-induced disease
· One victim's story: '(I) couldn't get a breath; it scared me to death almost' · Horseman in the race of his life
· Class-action suit targets Grace Co., insulation
· Mine-safety agency takes action
· Immediate cleanup sought in mining town
· Grace to pick up medical bills in tainted town
· Asbestos study is expanded nationwide
· Deadly ore was shipped around U.S., Canada
· Just 23 months hauling ore--and it killed him 36 years later
· Finally, asbestos victims have their say
· Initial tests reveal areas of asbestos in and around Libby
· Montana's governor knows asbestos danger
· State, federal authorities sending teams to Montana mining town
· Editorial: Libby folks must get some answers
· EPA sues for access to Libby vermiculite mine
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