Tester proposes plan to clean up Libby, help asbestos victims
The Daily Inter Lake
Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., has pitched a plan to help clean up Libby and improve health care for victims of asbestos poisoning from the former W.R. Grace vermiculite mine.
And Tester's plan already is picking up steam on the Senate Appropriations Committee.
During a hearing earlier this week in Washington, D.C., Tester asked U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson to team up with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to work together to clean up asbestos contamination in Libby.
Such a partnership would be "a giant step forward in meeting some of the challenges that occur in Libby," Tester told Jackson. Better communication and closer collaboration between the two agencies is needed, he stressed.
As a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, Tester was a leading voice in establishing a similar partnership between the Veterans Administration and the U.S. Department of Defense.Once finalized, the new partnership will improve health care for veterans by streamlining the way both agencies share information.
More than 200 residents of Libby have died and thousands more are still suffering from asbestos-related diseases.The entire community of Libby is now a Superfund site.
"I think that with some attention by people like you, Administrator Jackson, I think we can get a big bang for the buck," Tester told the EPA leader."We can help make Libby whole again and we can solve a huge problem that we have in one of the most beautiful places in the world."
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chaired the subcommittee hearing and offered to help Tester and Libby "in any way."
"Why don't we work together on some report language for the bill, which essentially would mandate the EPA to really do what Senator Tester has just suggested: take a new look at it, and give us some findings," Feinstein said.
Tester reminded the committee about the recent acquittal of several W.R. Grace executives accused of covering up the dangers of asbestos in Libby.
"Last week the Justice Department failed in their criminal case against W.R. Grace, and the people in Libby and Montana are extremely frustrated," Tester told Jackson."The situation in Libby is serious enough that it demands your personal attention.And immediate attention."
Earlier this year, Jackson agreed to visit Libby at the request of Montana Senator Max Baucus.Baucus has long been an advocate for asbestos victims in Libby.
Earlier this year, Tester and Baucus secured and voted for $190,000 in funding for Libby's Center for Asbestos Related Disease, a facility that specializes in treating asbestos victims.