Libby asbestos: EPA promises assessment of risk by late next year

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has outlined a new timetable of late 2014 to produce results from three studies that will be pivotal in determining nearly every decision a remedial team in Libby will make during the remaining years of the asbestos cleanup.

The studies — a toxicology assessment, risk assessment and feasibility study — will dictate the science the EPA uses to determine exactly how much amphibole asbestos is acceptable to be left behind when the federal agency finishes its onsite work. The studies also will help the EPA determine how much work is left to do in Lincoln County.

Libby continues to deal with the aftermath of asbestos contamination from the W.R. Grace & Co. vermiculite mine that closed in 1990 after decades of operation.

 Deborah McKean, a toxicologist for the Region 8 EPA headquarters in Denver, explained that following the completion of the EPA’s Science Advisory Board’s toxicology assessment, scheduled for June of 2014, the agency expects it will take another six months to complete the risk assessment.

“My promise is at least within six months of [when] the toxicity value is finalized, I’ll be producing a draft risk assessment,” McKean said.

Wary of two major deadlines to complete the risk assessment missed previously by the EPA, Lincoln County Commissioner Tony Berget speculated on the possibility of the EPA giving itself more flexibility with its own deadlines.

 “At the latest,” McKean said in response, to punctuate the intended deadline of late 2014.

The complete risk assessment defines the lowest possible concentration of Libby amphibole asbestos fibers that can be reasonably extracted from the Libby Superfund site and compares risk exposure levels before and after remedial construction.

 “We’ve been waiting. We need to know what reasonable level we need to reach,” said Berget.

In order to move forward with the risk assessment, McKean said the toxicity assessment must complete several peer reviews by different federal agencies, including the White House, before reaching consummation.

The toxicity assessment exhibits how Libby amphibole asbestos is directly tied to cancer and noncancerous health issues. McKean underlined the timeline of the toxicity assessment to conclude in the spring of next year after peer review and revision.

The final key to completing the toxicity assessment lies in defining a comprehensive analysis of asbestos-related noncancerous diseases. The division relating to cancerous asbestos-related disease has been completed as the initial piece of the puzzle in addressing the 400 reported deaths of Libby citizens due to asbestos-related diseases.

“Once I’m told that the toxicity numbers are final, we can actually finalize the risk assessment, which is not a decision-making document but will present the data,” said McKean.

The EPA’s feasibility study process will be the decision-making document that examines the data collected previously to determine alternative options in creating ultimate remedial action.

“We are starting the feasibility study right now. We can start that without the risk assessment,” McKean said.

While conducting work in each operable unit of the Libby Superfund site, the EPA currently is drawing information from draft risk assessments that allow operations to be put in motion. An EPA feasibility study handout explains that cleanup alternatives that are identified by effectiveness, implementability, and cost.

“The idea is that those drafts will be rewritten once the cumulative risk assessment is complete,” said McKean.

Jeff Camplin, president of Camplin Environmental Services Inc. and vice president of practices and standards of the American Society of Safety Engineers, said he believes the EPA will generate a report in a timely fashion for the simple motion of approaching a withdraw from Libby.

“They’re looking for an exit strategy from this Superfund site, they are realizing they have to get out of Libby,” Camplin said.

Camplin has worked as an environmental consultant with activists in Libby, and previously has stated that he believes the EPA has pushed forward without adequate scientific facts to establish a proper cleanup strategy.

“When they say they’re done and they’ve found an acceptable level, we want to hold their final reports up to the high standards of what they claim, and not manipulating the data, which they’ve proven over and over is the game they play,” Camplin maintained.

Granted two investigations by the Inspector General’s Office into the muddy progress of the EPA’s administration of the Libby cleanup, Region 8 has produced a new predicted set of milestone completion dates to deliver the risk assessment.

The original risk assessment was required of the EPA in 2005, but was aborted once the agency claimed to have found the Libby site to be an environmental hazard for which they could draw from no previous strategy of attack.

After an inspection by the Inspector General’s Office in 2005 found that no risk assessment had been moved into development, it set a new timeline to be followed by the EPA for completing specific goals. The new recommendation suggested that the EPA complete a risk assessment by 2007, and again the agency failed to meet the deadline.

“I think it’s pretty ambitious. I just think it may be a little longer,” Berget said.

“We’re trying to stay optimistic,” added McKean.