The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says it will complete the decade-long asbestos contamination cleanup of Lincoln County in the next two to three years.
On Feb. 8, the federal agency announced it had selected a final remedial plan for Libby and the surrounding area, which has been the epicenter of one of the largest environmental cleanups in American history.
The final remedial plan states that the work done in Libby over the last decade has left the community cleaner than it was when the W.R. Grace & Co. operated a poisonous vermiculite mine north of town. The material once mined there sickened thousands and killed hundreds of residents over the last few decades.
Since 2002, when the Libby area was designated a Superfund on the National Priorities List, the EPA has cleaned more than 2,200 homes and businesses there. The final remedial report notes that those cleanups have been successful and that the EPA will not have to go back to those properties for additional work. The EPA is still seeking access from the owners of about 700 different properties in the area to see what type of contamination is held in those buildings. Asbestos is commonly found in building insulation.
“This decision brings finality to more than 7,000 properties where the EPA has taken action during the past 14 years,” said EPA Regional Administrator Shaun McGrath in a press release. “It is our hope that this significant milestone will help this community continue to look forward.”
The final remedy also includes a long-term plan to manage any asbestos that might be encountered in the years after the EPA ends its cleanup. The Montana Department of Environmental Quality and the Lincoln County Asbestos Resource Program will hand future asbestos work.
The final remedy follows the release of a risk assessment issued for the community late last year that stated that removing all of the asbestos from Lincoln County would be impossible because it’s naturally occurring in that area. The risk assessment noted that asbestos that is sealed in the walls of homes and remains undisturbed does not pose a serious threat to human health, according to the report. However, inhaling even a small amount of asbestos could cause serious lung problems.
While the cleanup in Libby and Troy winds down, the work is just beginning at the old W.R. Grace mine site, known as Operable Unit 3. The project manager for OU3, Christina Progress, said the EPA is in the final stages of the remedial investigation and are now moving into the cleanup feasibility stage to determine just how much work must be done in the 35,000-acre area north of Libby.