EPA Will Remove Asbestos From Montana Homes

Date: May 9, 2002

Source: News Room

The Environmental Protection Agency plans to begin immediately removing asbestos-laced insulation from hundreds of homes in the small town of Libby, Mont. While the EPA has agreed to strip the hazardous insulation from attics and from behind the walls of about 800 homes in Libby, EPA officials said they do not believe such action will take place elsewhere. The EPA has been cleaning up asbestos-contaminated sites around the former mining town in western Montana on an emergency basis since 1999. The agency had expressed reluctance to take on the task of cleaning contaminated insulation from homes, at an estimated $3,000 to $20,000 per house, out of concern that it might set a precedent for homes elsewhere. Nationwide, the EPA estimates as many as 35 million homes may contain Zonolite insulation, which has the same harmful tremolite asbestos as the vermiculite ore, which has contaminated Libby. The contamination comes from now-defunct vermiculite mine operated first by Zonolite Corp. and later byW.R. Grace & Co. Lingering contamination from the mine is being blamed for nearly 200 deaths and health problems of hundreds of other area residents. Libby, population 6,000, is being considered for addition to the Superfund list as the most significant hazardous site in Montana.

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