For Polluter, EPA Times Libby Emergency Declaration Perfectly

But on April 9, EPA associate administrator Jessica Furey sent an email to EPA staff requesting them to draft a different rationale for removing the attic insulation, one that did not require a public emergency.
The next day, William M. Corcoran, vice president of Grace, sent a letter to EPA head Whitman opposing the need for a public health emergency and attic cleanups (read more about the letter here).
From there it was downhill. On April 16, top EPA officials, including Furey, met with members of the OMB.
Asked by the Senate panel when the decision to make the public health emergency declaration was reversed, Furey mentions this meeting, saying, “I remember the issue of precedent coming up… there was concern about sort of the slippery slope, if you do it in this case, why this situation and where do you draw the line for the other situations. And will that create public hysteria.”
The apparent fear was that the the rest of the United States, where there were 30 million homes still containing Zonolite, would wonder why a public health emergency was being declared over the insulation in Libby homes, but not in their homes.
The EPA began bending over backwards to accommodate the OMB, which wanted all reference to Zonolite and an emergency health declaration taken off the table. By early May 2002 they had gotten what they wanted. The EPA, despite having specific knowledge to the contrary, declared that the insulation in Libby homes was not a product, but something Grace had left in piles, and residents had put into their attics on their own accord.
The Senate report quotes an email from an unnamed official at EPA’s headquarters to EPA emergency response official Marianne Horinko, who writes, “EPA is in W.R. Grace’s pocket and afraid to declare the PHE (public health emergency).”
After that victory, Grace really hit its stride. On December 14, 2006, a bankruptcy court judge declared that Zonolite posed “No unreasonable risk of harm” to homeowners (click here for more).
The judge in that case ruled that Zonolite posed no more harm than riding a bicycle. This may not have been the judge’s opinion, had a risk analysis been performed on Libby asbestos. By doing a risk analysis early on, the EPA may have come to the same conclusions that scientists outside the EPA eventually did: that Libby amphibole is much more likely to cause cancer in lower doses than other forms of asbestos. According to the Senate report, the effort to study Libby amphibole may have gone forward with the public emergency declaration, which would have mandated more money for studies. As it were, a risk analysis, requested by EPA scientists, was denied money in the 2003 EPA budget.
In March of 2008, W.R. Grace entered into a settlement agreement with Libby and the EPA. Grace paid out $250 million, and is now shielded from paying future costs for medical or cleanup expenses in Libby. The cleanup, according to EPA, could cost at least $330 million.
Then on May 8, 2009, four of Grace’s executives, charged with clean air act violations, and conspiring to hide the dangers of its mine from Libby residents, were found not guilty. On June 16, 2009, the federal government dropped charges against the last Grace defendant, and the next day the Public Health Emergency was declared.
The time, it seemed, was suddenly just perfect to declare an emergency in Libby.
Read more about the circumstances surrounding the initial attempt to declare a Public Health Emergency, and its connections to air pollution post-9/11 Manhattan, here.

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