Grace offers $250 million for Libby

W.R. Grace & Co. has agreed to pay the federal government $250 million to settle a bankruptcy claim for asbestos cleanup costs in Libby, but the lion's share of the money will reimburse the Environmental Protection Agency for money already spent to decontaminate Libby.

The settlement is the largest in the history of the Superfund program, the Department of Justice and EPA said Tuesday in a joint announcement.

"This is very big news," said Ted Linnert, the EPA's community involvement coordinator for Libby.

EPA Libby team leader Paul Peronard agreed, calling it "a good and fair deal." But he cautioned that the settlement is not yet a done deal and requires bankruptcy-court approval. A 30-day comment period precedes the court ruling.

To date the EPA has spent $163 million to clean up toxic asbestos contamination from the vermiculite mine Grace operated near Libby until 1990. Exposure to asbestos has sickened and killed hundreds of Libby area residents.

Linnert said the remaining $87 million will be banked for future cleanup, operations and maintenance expenses in Libby. The money cannot be used for health care to treat people with asbestos disease, but can be used for future site-specific investigations, he said, such as scientific studies to support baseline risk assessment.

LIBBY MAYOR Tony Berget said he wonders what the pending settlement will mean to the average Libby area resident.

"It's nice to see it's not all our tax money that will be used for cleanup, but I'd be curious to know if it will speed up cleanup," Berget said. "Right now [the cleanup] puts our lives on hold. If you want to remodel, you have to wait until the EPA comes" to inspect the home.

Linnert said the settlement gives the EPA the potential to accelerate cleanup in Libby, but wondered if the infrastructure can support much more activity.

"How many dump trucks on Main Street will it take before you start hearing about it?" he asked.

Linnert was encouraged, however, by a recent survey that indicated Libby residents would tolerate more traffic if it meant cleanup could be done quicker.

Gayla Benefield of Libby, a longtime advocate for asbestos victims, said she has questioned for some time why cleanup can't be accelerated, noting that cleanup of asbestos in the neighboring community of Troy has remained elusive for eight years.

"It's hard telling how this all will be used," Benefield said about the settlement proposal. "I don't see an awful lot changing. I doubt if policies or methods will change until the results of the tox (toxicology) studies are known.

"We still don't know how much asbestos exposure causes illness," she said. "They've spent $163 million and still can't tell us if our homes are clean and safe yet. They're retesting some and may be recleaning some. Will $250 million be enough?"

Peronard agreed that fundamental questions remain about the toxicity of asbestos.

"It is somewhat of a moving target," Peronard said. "What will be the absolute cost of cleanup? That's not been settled."

Peronard said the timing of the settlement will dictate how the EPA proceeds with the pace of cleanup, and right now no one knows how long it will take the bankruptcy court to rule.

"Once the money is in hand, we'll be more ambitious in cleanup and investigations. We'll pick up the pace," he said.

THE EPA has been removing asbestos-contaminated soils and other materials in the Libby area since May 2000.

The federal government sued Grace in 2001 to recover its investigation and cleanup costs under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, better known as the Superfund law. The lawsuit also named Kootenai Development Corporation, a Grace subsidiary, as a defendant because it owned three contaminated properties in Libby.

In 2003, the U.S. District Court in Montana awarded the EPA more than $54 million for cleanup costs incurred through 2001. That award has not been paid due to Grace's bankruptcy, the Justice Department's news release indicated.

Once approved, the EPA will place the settlement proceeds into a special account within the Superfund that will be used to finance future cleanup work.

Lincoln County Commissioner Rita Windom said she has questions about how the money will be divided among the various cleanup sites that include not only Libby but also Troy and the mine area itself.

"Certainly this takes a little pressure off the EPA in having to continue to go back and ask for more [cleanup] money," Windom said.

The commissioners will meet with EPA officials this morning to learn more about the specifics of the settlement.

The proposed settlement with the EPA doesn't affect the hundreds of personal-injury lawsuits filed against Grace by those with asbestos disease.

"There's not a penny for people dying," Kalispell attorney Jon Heberling said.

Heberling has 675 clients with asbestos disease; roughly 2,000 people have been diagnosed with asbestos poisoning from the Libby mine.

"Grace has $4 billion and the question is how that gets carved up," Heberling said. "Obviously any $250 million settlement reduces the pot."

Benefield, who has lost many family members and friends to asbestos disease, said she still quotes her good friend and fellow advocate Les Skramstad, who died last year from asbestos disease.

"My friend Les used to say that no matter how much money they dump on Libby, Grace never said they were sorry," Benefield said. "It still doesn't change lives" cut short by asbestos disease.

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., who has consistently advocated for Libby since the asbestos contamination came to light in late 1999, issued a statement late Tuesday, saying "more money for Libby is always a good step.

"But, as always, the devil is in the details," Baucus said. "W.R. Grace knowingly poisoned the people of Libby and devastated an entire town. $250 million is a drop in the bucket compared to the destruction and pain our neighbors in Libby have been through."

Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont. also weighed in on the pending settlement.

"You can't put a price on human lives, and far too many folks were lost in Libby because of asbestos," Tester said in a prepared statement. "Cleaning up the mess and taking care of the Montanans poisoned by W.R. Grace will take years of hard work. It will also require responsibility from a company that knowingly turned so many Montana families into victims."