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Environmental News - Asbestos in Libby
Libby Added to National Priority List

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EPA Action Update #15, October 23, 2002

Helena, MT - U.S. EPA Headquarters today has made the decision to list the Libby Asbestos site on the National Priority List - a list of U.S. hazardous waste sites that are eligible for extensive, long-term cleanup under the Superfund program. In January, 2002 Governor Martz used the State of Montana's one-time privilege of naming a site as its highest priority for designation to the NPL.

Governor's Letter (PDF: 30.8 KB, 2 pages), citing the asbestos contamination and consequent health problems, caused the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to propose Libby to the National Priorities List (NPL) in February, 2002. Today's decision makes the site eligible to receive federal funds for long-term cleanup while EPA seeks to recover costs from the responsible parties. When the Trust fund is used, the State of Montana assumes ten percent of the clean-up costs.

EPA has been at work in Libby since November 1999. In addition to the investigation and risk assessment work, EPA has completed clean-up work at numerous sites in and around Libby that had high concentrations of asbestos such as the former W.R. Grace processing facilities, several Libby schools and several residences. EPA will complete the screening of all Libby homes and businesses by the end of November as planned. In addition to nine residences which cleanup is already complete, 41 additional residences or commercial properties are targeted for cleanup by December 15, 2002. Investigations at the mine site will be minimal until the risks in the town are eliminated.

Information that EPA used to document the proposed listing of the site is available at:

U. S. EPA Records Center
999 18th St., 5th Floor
Denver, CO 80202-2466
Tel: 303-312-6473

Contacts:

EPA Libby Links Note: some of the files below are Adobe Acrobat PDF files
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