Libby, Montana: A Good Place To Die

Libby looks like a postcard of small-town America. It’s a beautiful town of 2,500–3,000 people in northwestern Montana. Several thousand more people live in the surrounding valley and along the banks of the Kootenai River, with graceful mountains towering in the distance.

The only problem is, the people are dying.

Asbestos and old lace
For decades, mining was the town’s major industry. A mother lode of vermiculite was discovered in a nearby mountain in 1881, and in the 1920s, the Zonolite Company began reaping it. In 1963, W.R. Grace & Co. purchased the mine. At one point in history Libby supplied 80% of the world’s vermiculite, a mineral used in everything from fertilizer to brake shoes to attic insulation.

In the 1980s, the government noticed that some people in Ohio who worked around the Libby vermiculite were getting sick. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) tried to look into the allegations. But W.R. Grace officials stonewalled them and refused to cooperate. According to confidential company papers that surfaced later in court, that was the plan.

But NIOSH kept at it, and the results of their testing blew the lid off the story. The vermiculite was heavily contaminated with the worst form of asbestos.

For decades, mining the vermiculite had released thousands of pounds of asbestos fibers into the air. Libby’s lovely enclosed valley has “possibly the worst ventilation of any community in Montana” according to a government report. When asbestos fibers flew into the air, they didn't blow away. They settled over the mine and the community, so that everybody could breathe them.

NIOSH checked the people of Libby, too. They x-rayed the miners and their families. They found that 18% of the people had abnormal chest x-rays. In a valley with fewer than 8,000 residents, 1,200 people are currently diagnosed with diseases caused by asbestos exposure. As time passes, the numbers could easily rise.

The government looked at the death certificates of all the people who died in Libby between 1979 and 1998. People there are forty to sixty times more likely to die from asbestosis than in other, unexposed parts of the country. Deaths from lung cancer are 30% higher. Mesothelioma deaths are higher, too, but because that cancer is so rare it’s harder to judge the percentages.

Criminal charges have been filed against W.R. Grace and seven of their current or former employees. They deny any “criminal wrongdoing.”

Federal court has ordered W.R. Grace to pay for the cleanup of Libby. In the first two years of the cleanup, the government has spent $54.5 million, and there’s more work to be done. W.R. Grace declared bankruptcy in April 2001, so any payments they make must be approved by the bankruptcy court.

Superfund to the rescue
The EPA has been working in Libby since November 1999. Their technicians and scientists have taken thousands of air, soil, and insulation samples from homes, businesses, and the surrounding areas. They’ve been busy covering over the asbestos-laced vermiculite so that it can’t escape into the air. They’ve removed it from people’s homes and businesses and from the school.

Although the EPA estimates that as many as 1,400 properties will require cleanup, the process has been well begun. Libby, Montana, a beautiful example of small-town America, will again be a good place to live and visit.