HELENA – A government memorandum identifying public-health concerns about the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s asbestos cleanup in Libby has been released a week after a group sued for disclosure, citing fruitless attempts to obtain the document through the Freedom of Information Act.
In releasing the 2006 memorandum Tuesday, EPA’s Office of Inspector General noted the Obama administration’s policy that openness should prevail when there is doubt about FOIA requests.
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, an alliance of government-employed professionals, filed a lawsuit last week charging the EPA improperly withheld the document about Libby cleanup. Asbestos was in vermiculite mined years ago near the northwestern Montana town.
In U.S. District Court in Missoula, mine operator W.R. Grace & Co. and four former executives of the Columbia, Md.-based company are on trial on allegations they allowed asbestos exposure in Libby while aware of health risks. Lawyers for some Libby residents say asbestos from the mine, which closed in 1990, has sickened about 2,000 people and killed about 225.
The memorandum written by investigator Cory Rumple in the Office of Inspector General, and circulated within the office, has become known informally as the Rumple Report.
The memo refers to lack of communication between scientists and the EPA; infighting; deadline pressure to decide what should be done in Libby; and criticism of documents distributed in the community, one titled “Living With Vermiculite” and the other a letter sent to residents after their homes were cleaned by EPA contractors. Scientists and members of an EPA Technical Assistance Unit found language in the documents misleading, Rumple wrote.
In a letter Tuesday to Acting Inspector General Bill Roderick, Rumple said his investigation began over allegations about contractors’ residential cleaning. There were complaints that they wetted carpets, perhaps containing asbestos, to get lower asbestos readings in air samples. An investigation did not find grounds for prosecution.
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility said in a statement that the memo “raises more questions than it answers,” but that quick resolution of the lawsuit indicates the Obama administration’s call for openness in handling FOIA requests will be heeded.