EPA can’t verify Libby cleanup

WASHINGTON – The Environmental Protection Agency cannot verify the effectiveness of its asbestos cleanup programs in Libby, Mont., the agency’s inspector general said Tuesday.

The agency needs to do more testing to be certain its asbestos cleanup reduces the risk that residents may become ill or, if already ill, become sicker, the inspector general’s office wrote in a report released by Montana Sen. Max Baucus.

“EPA has no way to determine whether the initial removals sufficiently reduced the risk,” the inspectors wrote.

The investigators’ conclusions could mean that hundreds of Libby homes already cleaned by the EPA would need to be re-evaluated for safety. The agency did not respond Tuesday to requests for comment on the report.

Libby is home to the now-closed W.R. Grace and Co. vermiculite mine. The vermiculite, used in a variety of household products, contained tremolite asbestos, which was released into the air, carried home on miners’ clothing and even used in material spread on a high school running surface. It is blamed by some health authorities for killing about 200 people and sickening one of every eight residents. The EPA, which has declared the area a Superfund site, first arrived in Libby in November 1999. The mine closed in 1990.

Investigators recommended the EPA complete a toxicity assessment recommended by the Department of Health and Human Services in 2003. That test would collect data to determine ways in which exposure can occur and the potential of the contaminants to cause harmful effects to people. It would also calculate the risk to people exposed.

According to the report, EPA officials said the test was denied internally because the agency did not approve the budget request and they believed they could obtain the necessary information through other studies they are conducting.

The investigators also found that two EPA documents, “Living with Vermiculite” and “Asbestos in Your Home,” are inconsistent with safety recommendations.

In the brochure “Living with Vermiculite,” for example, the EPA recommends that homeowners not disturb asbestos because it is unknown what is safe. The document then says homeowners would have little risk of exposure if they handle asbestos while cleaning up an undefined small release of the contaminant.

“We believe this recommendation is inconsistent with the uncertainty of the dangerous levels of exposure,” the investigators wrote. “Potentially, Libby homeowners could expose themselves to dangerous levels of (asbestos) if they interpret the document to mean that no significant risks exist.”

The investigators recommended the agency “review and correct” any statements that cannot be supported in documents made available to Libby residents until the toxicity assessment is completed.

Baucus said he will work to make sure the EPA has the funding to do the study.

“The EPA’s work in Libby is morally and ethically reprehensible – it has the potential to bring further harm to a community that has already suffered too much,” he said.

The report asks top agency officials for a response within 30 days.