EPA Declares First Ever Public Health Emergency under Superfund Law

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ENVIRONMENT REPORT Reproduced with permission from Daily Environment Report, DEN 6-18-09, 06/18/2009. Copyright 姝 2009

by The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. (800-372-1033) http://www.bna.com

Superfund

First-Ever Health Emergency Declared by EPA At Montana Site of Asbestos Contamination he Environmental Protection Agency declared a public health emergency June 17 at a superfund site in Libby, Mont., committing the federal government to providing medical care for asbestos-related disease and to ‘‘move more aggressively’’ to complete cleanup of tremolite asbestos contamination that permeates the area. ‘‘This is the first time EPA has made a determination under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act that conditions at a site constitute a public health emergency,’’ EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said at a news conference.

The declaration also applies to Troy, about 18 miles west of Libby, where many residents were exposed to tremolite asbestos as a result of working in Libby.

She said conditions at Libby and Troy constitute ‘‘a unique public health tragedy’’ where investigators have found rates of asbestos-related illness and mortality ‘‘staggeringly higher than the national average.’’

The Libby site was added in 2002 to EPA’s National Priorities List, its list of most seriously contaminated superfund sites. The Libby asbestos site includes the towns of Libby and Troy and an inactive vermiculite mine seven miles northeast of Libby, according to EPA. Tremolite asbestos found throughout the community results from the W.R. Grace & Co.’s mining of vermiculite, which contains asbestos, and its manufacture of Zonolite insulation that contains the substance. The company operated in Libby and Troy, in Lincoln County, Mont., from 1963 to 1990.

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Financial Resources Assured. Jackson said declaring a public health emergency under CERCLA ‘‘assures the financial resources needed for the cleanup’’ as well as ‘‘a comprehensive risk assessment and research proCOPYRIGHT 姝 2009 BY THE BUREAU OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS, INC.

gram . . . that will assure that the cleanup is fully protective.’’

An EPA official who briefed reporters following the news conference said the public health emergency gives EPA ‘‘clear legal authority’’ to remove building materials, specifically the Zonolite insulation product, from the site. Without the public health emergency designation, EPA would not be authorized to carry out removal actions that include commercial building products, the official said.

Grant Will Pay for Medical Care. Montana’s two U.S. senators, Max Baucus (D) and Jon Tester (D), joined Jackson at the news conference, along with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

Sebelius told reporters that a noncompetitive $6 million grant will be awarded in August as a consequence of the EPA declaration. The grant will support a Lincoln County health clinic providing free care for asbestosrelated conditions to those who lack health insurance.

For those with insurance, it will pay for the uninsured portion of the care, the EPA official said.

The grant is just a first step, Sebelius said, ‘‘to provide short-term medical assistance for screening, diagnostic and treatment service in a comprehensive and coordinated manner in partnership with . . . Lincoln County.’’

Tester, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, pledged to do whatever he can to appropriate funds for the Libby effort. EPA’s decision ‘‘will go a long way to make quality health care more accessible, and it will open the door to get new resources on the ground,’’ he said.

200 Deaths From Exposure. Baucus said there have been 200 deaths attributable to tremolite asbestos exposure in Libby through any number of pathways. The Zonolite insulation, as well as the raw mined material, is ‘‘everywhere,’’ Baucus said.

W.R. Grace provided the raw material free to workers and the community, according to Baucus, which

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2 means ‘‘it’s in playgrounds and ballfields and yards, not just in the area of the mine.’’

Baucus said tremolite asbestos is ‘‘more pernicious’’ than other types. ‘‘Most lung experts don’t even know that much about this kind of asbestos,’’ he said. ‘‘I cannot emphasize strongly enough how tragic this situation has been,’’ he added.

Baucus, who serves on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, convened a hearing before that committee in September 2008, where he charged that officials ‘‘in the highest echelons’’ of the Bush administration officials blocked an earlier decision to declare a public health emergency in Libby.

Then-EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman told Libby residents at a congressional field hearing there in September 2001 that she would declare the emergency, but Baucus said she was prevented from carrying out her promise by officials at the White House (187 DEN A-8, 9/26/08) .

Jackson said EPA will launch ‘‘a massive outreach program’’ for homeowners and others outside Libby who may have Zonolite vermiculite insulation in their buildings.

Public Advised Not to Disturb Insulation. ‘‘We are advising the public to take a precautionary approach’’ if they think they have the product in their homes, she said.

EPA is advising them not to disturb the product.

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‘‘We’re not sounding a general alarm,’’ Jackson said, adding that if the product is sealed behind a wall, it is not a health threat.

However, the EPA official who briefed reporters said anyone doing renovation or demolition work on a structure that contains Zonolite insulation needs to have a licensed asbestos removal professional do the job.

The official added that the public outreach campaign will be launched on EPA’s website on June 18, and all further information will be available then.

Vermiculite was discovered by gold miners in Libby in 1881, and the Zonolite Company formed in the 1920s and began mining it. W.R. Grace bought the Zonolite mining operations in 1963, and provided over 70 percent of all vermiculite sold in the United States until it closed the operation in 1990, according to the EPA. On May 8, 2009, a federal jury in Montana found W.R. Grace and three former executives not guilty on all counts of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, knowing endangerment, and criminal violations of the Clean Air Act in connection with asbestos contamination in Libby (United States v. W.R. Grace & Co., D. Mont., No. 9:05cr-7, 5/8/09; 88 DEN A-10, 5/11/09).

Charges against the sole remaining defendant, the company’s inhouse counsel, were dismissed June 16 (114 DEN A-8, 6/17/09).

BY JANICE VALVERDE Further information on the Libby, Montana superfund site is available at http://www.epa.gov/libby/.

COPYRIGHT 姝 2009 BY THE BUREAU OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS, INC.

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