Asbestos Risks Not Limited To Libby, Montana

Today’s Bergen Record is running an AP story about new asbestos problems in Libby, Montana (New Danger Found in Asbestos Town in Montana)

Looks like again, EPA failed to do their job – looks like they covered up the problem and failed to act until the press started doing investigative work (hint to NJ press corps!)

The AP story reports:

An Associated Press investigation found that the federal government has known for at least three years that the wood piles were contaminated with an unknown level of asbestos, even as Libby residents hauled truckload after truckload of the material away from the site and placed it in yards, in city parks, outside schools and at the local cemetery. The Environmental Protection Agency did not stop the removal of the material until the AP began investigating in early March.

In addition to Libby, I doubt many people are aware that cancer causing asbestos mined in Libby is present in the attics and walls of thousands of homes across the country – and in gardens too.

Asbestos from Libby is found in insulation and garden products used in thousands of homes. The asbestos containing product is vermiculite, sometimes called Zonolite.

A big part of the problem stems from a huge regulatory loophole that is exploited for many bulk products that incorporate (under the Orwellian termed “beneficial reuse“) industrial toxic wastes, like contaminated soils, coal and power plant sludges and residuals, and many other industrial wastes which are used to manufacture everything from concrete and wallboard to cosmetics. The AP story nails this loophole:

Local officials estimate that 1,000 tons were used in landscaping and for erosion control in Libby. Over the past decade, as much as 15,000 tons were sold and hauled out of town to destinations unknown, according to the economic development official who was selling it.

The EPA is now scrambling to gauge the public health risk and is preparing to issue guidelines about how residents should handle the wood, including warnings not to move or work with the material when it’s dry to avoid stirring up asbestos. But the agency has decided it won’t track down where the chips went, saying it no longer has jurisdiction because the material is now classified as a commercial product.

Back in 2000 or so, EPA began to investigate asbestos and related vermiculite problems, after a large number of asbestos related deaths in Libby forced their hand.

As part of the EPA investigation of the practices of WR Grace in Libby, a large zonolite plant was discovered in Trenton, NJ. I recall that the Trenton WR Grace site was found to have 15,000 cubic yards of high level asbestos illegally disposed on site.

The WR Grace Company certified – and the NJ DEP had rubber stamped the company’s false certification – that the site was clean. But EPA later had to intervene and remove the asbestos.

That case was one of the failed DEP cleanup scandals we testifed about way back in 2006. As the Bergen Record then wrote:

“W.R. Grace & Co. closed its insulation factory in the heart of Hamilton Township 12 years ago and gave the site a clean bill of health.

Under new environmental cleanup rules designed to speed the reuse of industrial sites, state [DEP] regulators took the company’s word, never testing an ounce of the property outside of Trenton.

But there was contamination — lots of it. Last year, town officials learned Grace had left behind 15,000 tons of soil riddled with extraordinarily high levels of asbestos.
[…]
“The new poster child for the system’s failings is Hamilton, where asbestos isn’t the only problem.

Last month, town officials were told that crushed concrete used as a roadbed at a planned housing development was tainted with cancer-causing PCBs. The concrete came from the demolition of the old Ford assembly plant in Edison. Adding to the insult, the state [DEP] had known about the pollution since September but failed to notify locals for six months.

State and federal officials have opened criminal probes of both the asbestos and PCB incidents.”

The Legislature held oversight hearings and the NJ Attorney General launched a criminal investigation. But I don’t know what – if anything – became of that investigation.

During Whitman’s EPA tenure, EPA basically swept the national vermiculite problem under the rug. Worse, the Whitman EPA failed to respond aggressively in Libby, and refused to declare a public health emergency there. Corporate polluter WR Grace was never fully held accountable for the hundreds of deaths they caused.

To gauge the national vermiculite risks, EPA did a “pilot” study of just 6 homes in Vermont. The risk assessment in that study did not quantify cancer risks, and called for additional research. But I don’t think EPA ever did a followup national study – move on, no problem here – thus the extent of the problem is largely unknown.

So, for homeowners, citizens, and any enterprising reporters out there, here is some information:

• EPA Vermont study fact sheet
• EPA vermiculite technical study page
• EPA Vermiculite page:

Sorry, I didn’t follow this issue closely and am not up to speed, but this red flag from the EPA “pilot” study on vermiculite risks in Vermont homes should raise major concerns (basically, EPA is covering up known cancer risks – letting WR Grace off the hook):