A Dangerous Lie
admin | Jul 27, 2006 | Comments 0
Ramrodded
The EPA, Sullivan, Henningsen, Maynard and Troyer say, intentionally misled Libby residents about their risk of exposure and created unscientific cleanup procedures in order to hasten to the finish line. Typically, Henningsen says, Superfund cleanups go through two phases before they’re considered complete: the emergency response phase and the remedial action phase. While in emergency response mode, the EPA’s obligation is to remove what Henningsen calls “hot spots,” or areas of high contamination. This, he says, the agency has mostly accomplished. The remedial phase of a Superfund cleanup can, and often does, run concurrently with the emergency phase.
To begin the remedial phase, Henningsen says, risk is established through scientific study. Once that is done, it can be determined how clean a site must be to be safe. The EPA then issues a Record of Decision (ROD), a contract specifying exactly what the agency will do to finish the cleanup. Henningsen says when he first began working as the Libby technical adviser, the EPA was preparing to write its ROD by the end of 2006 and leave Libby soon afterward. The agency wanted to leave, Henningsen says, having only cleaned the town under emergency response mode, and having never moved into the remedial phase.
“They were portraying falsely that their [emergency response] activities had somehow magically become the final remedial cleanup,” Henningsen says. “If they had succeeded in getting that ROD through, they were going to conclude that what they had already done was adequate.”
After the ROD is in place and the EPA has completed the cleanup mandated by the ROD, Henningsen says, the EPA leaves the site.
“Once they finalize the ROD they’re done, and you’ll play hell to ever get them back in town again,” says Henningsen. “Their legal obligation is over.”
And after the EPA leaves, Henningsen says, Libby and the state of Montana will likely find themselves responsible for future cleanup and health care costs in Libby. Since the OIG began investigating the cleanup, Henningsen says, the EPA has postponed writing the ROD. But even if it turns out that current exposure levels in Libby are acceptable, Troyer points out that homes where asbestos has been contained will eventually fall apart, be demolished or burned, yards and gardens will be dug up, trees will fall, and asbestos will come to the surface again. The cost of cleaning these potential messes, the four men say, would likely fall to Libby or the state. And asbestos cleanup isn’t cheap.
The EPA’s information office in Libby estimates that about $17 million per year is currently spent on Libby cleanup costs.
“There’s a fair chance that [Libby] could become a burden for the state,” especially, Henningsen says, “if they have to pick up the health care for those people.”
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