EPA’s new chief says Libby cleanup to take years

WASHINGTON – The new head of the Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday that it will take five to six years to finish cleaning up asbestos contamination in Libby, Mont.

Stephen L. Johnson, who was confirmed as the agency’s new administrator last month, said at a Senate hearing that the EPA estimates there are 1,000 to 1,200 additional sites that need cleaning in and around the town. Current funding is enough for the cleanup of about 200 sites a year, he said.

Montana Republican Sen. Conrad Burns, chairman of the Senate appropriations subcommittee that held the hearing, said that timeline was not fast enough. “The folks in Libby have suffered greatly and I would like nothing more than to see this site cleaned up at breakneck speed,” he said.

Burns also encouraged the EPA to budget more money for the cleanup. The current annual funding for the project is about $17 million a year, Johnson said.

Libby residents have endured sickness and the deaths of some 200 people from asbestos contamination caused by the now-shuttered W.R. Grace and Co. vermiculite mine. The EPA has declared the town a Superfund site and has been cleaning contaminated sites – including homes and businesses – in the town since 1999.

Earlier this year, a federal grand jury indicted the company and seven executives, accusing them of conspiring for decades to hide the danger.