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A Toxic Legacy: The Story of Asbestos Contamination in Libby, Montana

Thursday, June 18, 2009

By WADE RAWLINS
For decades, the people of Libby and Troy, Montana suffered and died at staggeringly high rates from asbestos-related diseases. Little did the townsfolk know that the vermiculite ore that workers unearthed at the local mine was spreading a pall of lung-penetrating microscopic asbestos fibers throughout the area. The fibers left scar tissue in the lungs that made it hard to breathe and caused cancer such as mesothelioma.

The asbestos contamination in these remote northwestern towns remains so widespread and the situation so dire that for the first time in history, federal environmental officials this week declared a public health emergency under the federal Superfund law.

“It is a toxic legacy, the legacy of decades of mining operations that literally contaminated these towns and put its residents at grave risk,” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson said in making the announcement.

The health emergency declaration requires the federal government to provide screenings and health care for Libby residents with asbestos-related disease.

Jackson said investigations by the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry had found the incidence of asbestosis, a lung condition in the Libby area to be much higher than the national average for period from 1979-1998. “We determined that we needed to step up our efforts to protect the people in Libby and Troy,” Jackson said.

More than 200 people have died so far from asbestos-related disease--people such as Libby miner Les Skramstad, whose tragic story was recalled by U.S. Sen. Max Baucus of Montana. Like many others, Skramstad worked at the mill on Zonolite Mountain. He came home with his clothes covered with asbestos fibers and unwittingly contaminated his family.

“I come down off the mine, and I’m caked in dust,” Baucus said, quoting Skramstad. “When I come down from the mine, my wife embraces me. She is all caked in dust with asbestos I’ve brought from the mine. My kids jump in my lap. They get caked with asbestos dust.”

Skramstad died in 2007 of mesothelioma, an asbestos-related cancer. Baucus said Skramstad’s wife, Norita, was dying of asbestos-related disease and two of his children had asbestos-related illnesses like hundreds of other residents in the area.

“I cannot emphasize too strongly just what a tragic situation it is up in Libby,” Baucus said.

Mining History

Gold miners discovered vermiculite in Libby in the 1880s. In the 1920s, the Zonolite Company formed and began mining the vermiculite. In 1963, W.R. Grace bought the Zonolite mining operations and extracted vermiculite for use in building insulation and as a soil conditioner. The mine closed in 1990.

It’s estimated that the Libby mine produced over 70 percent of all vermiculite sold in the United States from 1919 to 1990, according to the EPA.

The EPA has been working in Libby since 1999 when an emergency response team was sent to investigate newspaper reports about asbestos-contaminated vermiculite and high rates of asbestosis.

Much Work Remains

Libby has been on the EPA’s “Superfund” list of polluted places since 2002, and cleanup has been under way.

As of 2009, the former vermiculite processing plants and other highly contaminated public areas have been cleaned up, and cleanups also have been completed at more than 1,100 residential and commercial properties. But much work remains.

“No community — whether it’s a big city or a small town in northwest Montana — can deal with an environmental catastrophe on the scale of the Libby disaster by themselves,” U.S. Sen. Jon Tester of Montana said. “The system let Libby down. For too long, Libby has been what newspapers described as a town left to die. The people of Libby want their future back.”

Jackson, the EPA administrator, said there are towns and cities throughout the nation with vermiculite insulation in homes and businesses. EPA’s advice is not to disturb the insulation. “We don’t believe cleanup actions are necessary outside of Libby and Troy at this time,” she said.

But she said the EPA was launching a nationwide education campaign to improve public understanding of the health concerns of exposure to vermiculite asbestos and precautions for minimizing exposure.

EPA Information about Dealing with Vermiculite Insulation

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