EPA: Cost derailed asbestos declaration

Sen. Baucus still fighting for public-health emergency status

A public-health emergency declaration to handle the asbestos crisis in Libby was scrapped six years ago because the federal government feared it could spur costly asbestos cleanup across the country, a top Environmental Protection Agency official admitted Thursday.

New details about why the federal agency changed its mind about the Libby declaration emerged during a Senate hearing of the Environment and Public Works Committee called by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont.

Prior to the hearing, Baucus released a 50-page report detailing an investigation about the EPA's failure to declare a public health emergency in Libby, plus a trail of e-mails incriminating federal agencies. Baucus' staff and staffers from the Environment and Public Works Committee spent two years conducting the probe.

The documents show top EPA officials were prepared to declare a public-health emergency in Libby, but in April 2002 - around the same time they met with the White House - they changed their minds.

"This would've been the first public-health emergency," EPA Assistant Inspector General Stephen Nesbitt said during the hearing. "Economics were a concern."

Zonolite, the asbestos product produced for decades at the Libby vermiculite mine, first by Zonolite Co. and later by W.R. Grace, was used extensively by Libby residents for attic insulation and yard fertilizer.

Exposure to the toxic asbestos in Libby vermiculite has killed more than 200 people and sickened thousands of others with various asbestos-related diseases.

Declaring a public-health emergency in Libby to handle asbestos cleanup and provide medical care to victims would have set a precedent too costly for the federal government, Nesbitt speculated.

"If it was declared, Zonolite is not contained to Libby," he said, estimating anywhere from 15 million to 52 million homes nationwide have asbestos insulation.

By law, the declaration comes with not only a cleanup provision but also a requirement to provide medical care and ongoing testing for asbestos victims, Nesbitt said.

Baucus told the committee the EPA's decision not to declare a public-health emergency "has had a profound and lasting impact on the people of Libby.

"It also put EPA on a course that ignored the need to fully understand the toxicity of the unique form of asbestos found in Libby," Baucus said.

The investigation indicates it was the Office of Management and Budget that interfered and thwarted the EPA's plan to declare an emergency.

The EPA proceeded with cleanup in Libby, but the EPA had to look for justification other than a public-health emergency for removing insulation from Libby homes.

The agency skirted around declaring an emergency by deeming the insulation a "non-product," since Libby residents allegedly had gotten the insulation from waste piles outside the W.R. Grace mine.

Yet Paul Peronard, the EPA on-site coordinator at Libby for years, told the Office of Inspector General last year the attic insulation could not be called "non-product." He told investigators that the last known date that Libby vermiculite was expanded was in 1951.

"The pile of vermiculite in Libby was unexpanded and would not be suitable for attic insulation," Peronard said.

Moreover, the insulation was "product," he maintained, and did not come from Libby since there was no vermiculite expansion plant in Libby. Peronard said only two Libby homes in the last seven years have had evidence of unexpanded vermiculite in the attic.

At a press conference following Thursday's hearing, Baucus said the EPA "stretched the law so far" that questions remain whether the agency had the legal authority to actually proceed with cleanup.

Cleanup of asbestos in Libby has been under way for several years. In 2007 the EPA cleaned up 160 homes; this year 150 properties are scheduled. The federal agency gets $17 million a year for Libby cleanup.

As of March 2008, $163 million has been spent on asbestos cleanup of nearly 1,000 properties in the Libby area.

The EPA declined Baucus' request to have Peronard and EPA toxicologist Chris Weis testify at the hearing. EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson was asked to be at the hearing but did not attend.

In a memo sent by Marianne Horinko, assistant administrator of the EPA's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, to other agency officials in 2002, she noted her uneasiness with using the "non-product" definition for vermiculite.

"All that we know is that Grace gave away vermiculite, and some may have ended up in the insulation; we don't know how much and will never know, given the time passage," she said. "Therefore I am not comfortable signing anything so definitive."

BAUCUS also faulted the EPA for delaying a toxicity assessment of Libby asbestos. In 2002, EPA on-site staffers began asking for toxicological studies, but the agency didn't begin the studies until last year.

"We need to know how clean is clean," Baucus testified. "We need to know the toxicity levels."

The investigation revealed that the toxicology study never was undertaken because EPA never approved the budget request for the study. Money initially was budgeted, but when several million dollars was cut from the Libby asbestos removal budget during 2003, the remaining money was allocated completely to clean up homes and other properties.

Dr. Brad Black, director of the Center for Asbestos Related Diseases in Libby, told the committee the medical-care component of a public-health emergency declaration could go a long way toward helping those with asbestos disease. The clinic currently has 2,400 patients with asbestos disease and is adding about 20 new patients each month.

Black pointed to gaps in existing health-care plans, such as Grace's medical plan, that leave patients vulnerable.

Lincoln County Commissioner Marianne Roose also testified, saying Libby and the county still are struggling with asbestos health-care issues.

"We're still waiting for the public-health emergency declaration," Roose said. "We need a long-term plan to care for victims."

Baucus said it may take new legislation next year to get the public-health emergency declaration for Libby. He did not provide specifics, however, about what that legislation would entail or how the federal government would pay for it.

Dr. Aubrey Miller, a toxicologist and science adviser for EPA's Region 8 that covers Libby, was interviewed by Baucus' staff earlier this month as part of the investigation. He acknowledged the political twist that upended the emergency declaration.

"EPA was going to let people know, but they were changed from their direction," Miller said. "A public-health emergency definitely would have helped. It would have provided media and public attention. Without [the declaration] asbestos has not become a public-health issue. That's the politics of asbestos."

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com