Epa Says Libby Needs Big Cleanup Air Samples Reveal Dangerous Asbestos Levels In Montana Town Near Closed Vermiculite Mine

Air samples suggest some drastic cleanup measures are needed in Libby, Mont., where homes and businesses for years were tainted with asbestos from a nearby mine.

“We figured there was a need for cleanup there, not only because of the air samples but because there’s so much vermiculite still there,” said the Environmental Protection Agency’s Paul Peronard, speaking of one test site that’s now a wholesale nursery. “We’ll probably take more drastic action there.”

Some locals were relieved recent test results weren’t worse.

“It’s a mixed blessing,” said Pat Vinion, one of hundreds of present and former Libby residents suffering from asbestos-related diseases.

He wasn’t surprised by results showing hazardous asbestos levels at the former vermiculite bagging and expanding plant, where Vinion’s father used to work. Vinion used to play at the ballfields next to the plant.

“I’m glad it’s not as bad as it could be,” he said. “But it’s 10 years after the fact and it still doesn’t pass. There’s still people who go in and out of there like everything’s hunky dory. “Something’s wrong with that picture.”

Air samples from one home and two businesses in Libby indicate hazardous levels of tremolite asbestos, the EPA reported this week.

The asbestos pollution is believed to be associated with vermiculite ore mined at the now closed Zonolite Mine north of town.

Vermiculite was valued for its ability to withstand high temperatures, but the ore at Libby’s Zonolite Mine was tainted with a particularly toxic form of asbestos.

The two businesses with high levels of asbestos were formerly bagging, expanding and loading facilities for the mine, which was owned and operated by W.R. Grace and Co.

Peronard, the on-site EPA coordinator, said the test results weren’t a big surprise.

The nursery used to be a railroad loading station for vermiculite, which was shipped all around the country for manufacturing into insulation and other materials.

Since news reports came out last year that hundreds of former W.R. Grace mine workers and family members were sick or dying from asbestos-related diseases, the EPA began testing the Libby area for asbestos contamination.

In addition, the EPA expanded its investigation to include vermiculite expansion plants around the country.

That decision followed a report that workers in those plants became ill and died from exposure to the asbestos-tainted ore.

One of those expansion plants was next to the old ballfields in Libby. W.R. Grace donated the property to the city, which leases the buildings to a wood products business.

Peronard said two of four buildings tested had high levels of asbestos in the air samples.

“The buildings where we found the materials are not the high-end use buildings,” Peronard said. “They use them for storage … that type of thing.”

Two of 32 private homes tested had air samples with levels that require EPA action. One of the homes was contaminated with a different type of asbestos than that associated with the vermiculite ore.

The type found in that home, chrysotile asbestos, was commonly found in insulation as well as ceiling and floor tiles. Further testing will confirm the source and indicate what has to be done to reduce or eliminate the risk, Peronard said.

The other home is contaminated with tremolite-actinalite asbestos fibers, which are the type found in the vermiculite ore. That home could be contaminated by vermiculite in attic insulation or from soil around the home, Peronard said.

It was common practice for miners to bring vermiculite home to use as a soil loosener during the mine’s heyday.

“We’ll sample locations to see if we can pinpoint where the fibers are coming from,” Peronard said.

The EPA also took soil, dust and insulation samples at the homes and businesses, but the results from those tests aren’t expected to be available until March. Nor are the results from ambient air samples taken at four locations around town. EPA officials believe the most meaningful ambient air results will be in the dry summer months.

The EPA did test the water in Rainy Creek, which flows by the toe of the Zonolite Mine’s tailing’s impoundment, and trace amounts of asbestos were found.

“There is a drinking water standard for asbestos, and they are well below that,” Peronard said.

The Montana Department of Environmental Quality also tested ground-water wells in the vicinity, which came up clean.

Mayor Tony Berget, who has been fielding calls from reporters from national and regional media outlets, said he was partly relieved by the results.

The businesses that registered high levels of asbestos were the “worst possible cases,” he said. But, “I was disappointed that we didn’t have complete zero (levels),” he said.

Ultimately, he said, the status of Libby’s environmental health won’t be known until all the testing is done - which could be a year from now.

Another 125 residents have requested EPA testing in their homes. The Federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, the public health arm of the EPA, is working to set up health monitoring to determine whether more people in Libby have asbestosis, or other asbestos-related diseases.

This sidebar appeared with the story: UPCOMING Town meeting

The public is invited to a town meeting to learn more about the asbestos test results and the EPA’s goals in Libby. The meeting is scheduled for 7 to 9 p.m. (MST) today at the Veterans’ Memorial Gym in Libby.