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NEWS
EPA Expects to Finish Libby Cleanup
Within Three Years
Agency announces nal clean up plan for asbestos contamination in Lincoln County
BY JUSTIN FRANZ OF THE BEACON
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 an- nounced it had selected a nal remedial plan for Libby and the surrounding area, which has been the epicenter of one of the largest environmental cleanups in American history.
The nal 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 nal remedial report notes that those cleanups have been success- ful 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 di erent 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 nality to more than 7,000 properties where the EPA has taken action during the past 14 years,”
The EPA o ce in Libby. BEACON FILE PHOTO
said EPA Regional Administrator Shaun McGrath in a press release. “It is our hope that this signi cant milestone will help this community continue to look forward.”
The nal 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 Qual- ity and the Lincoln County Asbestos Resource Program will hand future asbestos work.
The nal remedy follows the release of a risk assessment issued for the com- munity late last year that stated that re- moving 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 re- mains undisturbed does not pose a se- rious threat to human health, according to the report. However, inhaling even a small amount of asbestos could cause se- rious 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 nal stages of the remedial inves- tigation 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.
jfranz@ atheadbeacon.com
Glacier County Helps Cash-Strapped Browning County is now paying for re department, city hall utilities
BY JUSTIN FRANZ OF THE BEACON
Glacier County is paying to keep the lights on at the Browning Volunteer Fire Department and City Hall as the town teeters on the edge of bankruptcy.
Commissioner Michael DesRosier said last week the county agreed to pay for utilities at the two buildings to main- tain re services and to keep the county’s satellite o ce open. The county is also paying to fuel Browning’s re trucks.
“Our big concern is for public safety and maintaining services like the re department,” he said.
Browning closed its o ces Feb. 1, nearly a week after Mayor William Morris told employees he no longer had money to pay them. Morris said he was unsure if or when the town o ces would reopen and declined to speak in detail
about Browning’s nancial troubles.
In December, town o cials announced that their nances were in such bad shape that Browning would either go bankrupt or le for disincorporation. At the time, the town placed much of the blame on the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council, spe- ci cally on an ongoing legal battle over
water and utility services.
Questions have arisen over the last
few years about who owns the water sys- tem in Browning following a multi-mil- lion dollar expansion that was spear- headed by the town and the tribe. Unre- solved lawsuits have been led on both sides in tribal and federal courts. Tribal o cials dispute the claims that they are at fault for the nancial troubles.
While town o cials have threatened to discorporate, DesRosier said he thinks that is unlikely. For that to happen 15
percent of the community’s registered voters would have to make an appeal for an election to the county commission or two-thirds of the town’s governing body could call an election. If 60 percent of the community votes for disincorporation then the town would dissolve within two months. The town’s assets would be liq- uidated to pay any outstanding debts. If those assets did not cover all debts, then the county commission would create a special tax for property owners in the former town until the bills were paid o . The county would most likely be respon- sible for providing services like plowing and street repair.
About 1,000 people live in Brown- ing, located in the heart of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.
jfranz@ atheadbeacon.com
FEBRUARY 10, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
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