Hundreds of death in Libby, Montana have been blamed on vermiculite mining operation once operated by W.R. Grace. The contamination of Libby, Montana could be considered one of the most far-reaching environmental crimes and the federal government is about to start prosecutions in federal court in Missoula, in February 2009.
An indictment charges that W.R. Grace & Co. and six of its one-time employees knowingly endangered the lives of mine workers and other residents of Libby, and ignored warnings by state agencies to clean up the contaminated vermiculite mining operation. Asbestos contamination has been blamed for the deaths of about 200 Libby residents, and has sickened hundreds more.
According to W.R. Grace’s own records, the Libby vermiculite mine belched out tons of tremolite asbestos dust into the air every day it operated. As a result, the population has been diagnosed with asbestos-related diseases at more than 40 times the national average.
In February 2005, a federal grand jury charged Grace and seven of its top executives and managers with intentionally hiding numerous studies that spelled out the risks of Libby’s asbestos problem.
At the time, Montana’s U.S. attorney, William W. Mercer, called the situation in Libby “a human and environmental tragedy.”
At the trial scheduled for February 2009 in U.S. District Court in Missoula, federal prosecutors will attempt to prove that W.R. Grace executives Robert Walsh, Jack Wolter and Robert Bettachi; industrial hygienist Harry Eschenbach, mill manager Bill McCaig and attorney O. Mario Favorito conspired to conceal the truth about the asbestos contamination in Libby from miners and the federal government for more than a quarter-century.
The company has denied any wrongdoing, maintaining that company officials were concerned about employees and their health and took what steps they believed were reasonable and appropriate at the time.
Grace defenders say the company has spent vast sums of money on cleanup and health care, and acted responsibly once it became evident how toxic the asbestos was.
Federal prosecutors say that company officials did it for money $140 million in after-tax profits, according to the indictment.
The Libby mine operated from 1939 to 1990, producing 80 percent of the world’s vermiculite supply.
W.R. Grace, purchased the mine in 1963 and donated mine scraps for various projects around town. The dusty tailings were used to pave the Libby High School track and create the foundation for an ice-skating rink at Plummer Elementary School.
The federal indictment contends that, as far back as 1976, Grace officials knew the vermiculite was laden with deadly asbestos, but didn’t warn its workers.
Instead, officials kept the mine open and debated internally what to do.
According to a 1976 memo referring to statistics compiled by Harry A. Eschenbach, an industrial hygienist for Grace and one of the six men indicted, 63 percent of the employees with more than 10 years of service tested positive for lung ailments.
In 1978, Eschenbach received a report from an epidemiology firm hired by Grace. The report concluded that there were “a number of quite young individuals with obvious asbestos disease” working at the mine.
On Nov. 26, 1980, according to the indictment, a memo among senior Grace executives laid out the company’s options.
The company could “obstruct and block, possibly even contesting in the courts,” but, the memo added, “we’d lose and this is not exactly the image we try to project.”
The second option was more favored: “Be slow, review things extensively and contribute to delay.”
Another memo, this one by mill manager Bill McCaig, mentioned discussions with Grace about mandating uniform and shower policies to eliminate take-home dust, but concluded that such a policy “is unwarranted since adverse effects cannot be definitively proven and would only cause unwarranted fear or concern among employees and the Libby community.”
It was McCaig who authorized the mill tailings for the ice rink at Plummer Elementary School in 1981, according to the indictment. The same year, McCaig told a Grace employee to collect and analyze air samples at the high school track. Results showed “surprisingly high” asbestos fiber concentrations and Grace decided to resurface the tracks at both the junior and senior high schools. The company did not, however, remove the vermiculite materials at the tracks.
Two years later, they paid to have the track repaved.
In a 1982 memo, according to the indictment, Eschenbach referred to a study about the death certificates of 66 employees: “Our major problem is death from respiratory cancer. This is no surprise.”
Libby residents appear to be divided into camps of those who want to see W.R. Grace pay more and those who want to let it go.
Well well, big business playing fast and loose I wonder. In the UK we’ve never had a Vermiculite Asbestos problem