State and federal agencies estimate it will cost more than $200 million to clean up hazardous waste from an asbestos mine in Vermont. The mine owners, G-1 Holdings, a successor corporation to GAF Corporation, and the Vermont Asbestos Group, are bankrupt.
The government has filed claims in state court and in bankruptcy court as it tries to get the money from the mine’s former owners.
The mine in Lowell and Eden operated for almost a century. All that remains are old buildings and piles of rock, called tailings, which contain asbestos.
In 2007 the EPA spent almost $2 million dollars in an emergency effort to stop the waste material from damaging nearby streams and wetlands. To clean up the entire site, according to John Beling, assistant attorney general, is cost prohibitive.
“The total cost estimates, which are preliminary, put the range in the $210 to $250 million category. We’re not optimistic that we’re going to get 100 percent recovery, but we’re going to attempt to get as much as we can out of the bankruptcy and out of the state court proceeding.”
The State of Vermont is pursuing G-1 in bankruptcy court and the Vermont Asbestos Group in Washington Superior Court. According to Beling:
“As the present owner VAG is also strictly liable for the contamination at the property. And so we’ll be seeking both compensation for monies that have been expended and seek to get VAG to do as much work as possible and/or pay estimated costs going forward.”
The Vermont Asbestos Group says the company has little money to pay the government. And no assets.
As part of the claims filed the the State of Vermont, the government lawyers cited a recent Health Department study that found that people who live near the mine had higher rates of lung cancer and asbestosis. Similar to the situation in Libby, Montana.
Meanwhile, the EPA is reviewing whether the asbestos mine should be on the government’s Superfund list. If it does become a Superfund site, that would make federal money available for clean-up.
The taxpayers would foot the bill.
