Insulation leak fixed at school in Libby

HELENA – Insulation that likely contained asbestos was found leaking from a small hole in an outside wall at an elementary school in Libby, but the material has been cleaned up, and students are not at risk, officials with the school and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday.

The hole at Asa Wood Elementary School probably was caused by an excavator removing snow from school grounds earlier this month, Superintendent Kirby Maki said.

Students discovered the leak during recess Friday afternoon and alerted a teacher, Principal Margie Johnson said. The school then contacted Mike Cirian, remedial project manager for the EPA, who summoned a cleanup crew.

“The teacher on duty grew up here, and she knew exactly what it (the vermiculite) was,” Johnson said. “She steered the kids away.”

Cirian said the crew had the leaking material removed and taken to a landfill by 6:30 p.m. Workers also patched up the hole and made sure there weren’t any others, he said.

In all, they removed less than a quarter-yard of vermiculite – or enough to fill half an outdoor garbage can, Cirian said.

The rest of the vermiculite at Asa Wood is encapsulated, Cirian said.

“It is all contained in the walls, and it will stay that way unless there is another breach,” he said.

Cirian said the vermiculite in the insulation at Asa Wood likely came from the now-closed W.R. Grace & Co. mine.

Vermiculite from the mine, used in insulation and a variety of household products, contained harmful tremolite asbestos, which is blamed by some health authorities for killing more than 275 people in the Libby area and sickening hundreds more.

The EPA, which has declared the area a Superfund site, first arrived in Libby in 1999, when news reports linked asbestos contamination from the mine to the deaths and illnesses. Since then, it has cleaned up more than 950 properties, including yards, driveways, gardens and children’s play areas, Cirian said.

The agency doesn’t remove materials that are encapsulated, however. “That decision was made by the EPA years ago,” Cirian said.

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., on Wednesday called the Asa Wood vermiculite leak an “outrage.”

“There was a pile of vermiculite sitting outside the place we send our kids to learn,” he said in a statement. “Our government has failed us in Libby.”

Baucus said the leak was “further proof that a public health emergency should have been declared” in Libby. The senator has said a formal public health emergency declaration would authorize the EPA to do more extensive cleanup in homes and other structures, including removal of contaminated insulation. It also would increase health screenings and health care for Libby residents.