Cover-Ups: Libby, MT Asbestos & NYC 911 Clean Up

EPA Releases 2006 Report by Special Agent

Mary Anne, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Apr 30, 2009 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."

My friends at the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, (PEER) announced the public disclosure of a 2006 Office of the Inspector General Report by Cory Rumple. The memorandum describing a two-year investigation of the clean up efforts in Libby, Montana and referenced the New York City 911 clean up were kept locked up despite requests for its disclosure under FOIA, the Freedom of Information Act.

During the past years, PEER repeatedly requested the reports and memos, but were denied access because the Bush administration cited an alleged active law enforcement investigation was in the works. Within the first 10-days of Barack Obama presidency a presidential directive was issued stating, " The Government should not keep information confidential merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract fears" PEER filed a FOIA lawsuit demanding the release of the report and no contested papers were filed by the current administration. On April 28, 2009, the EPA released the Rumple Report.

For anyone not familiar with the devastating health crisis in Libby, Montana caused by exposure to asbestos, it was and is a disaster. The W.R. Grace Company employed mining workers, but the harmful effects of amphibole asbestos permeated the community and has gone beyond the actual closing of the operation years ago. The Rumple Report only addresses the actual clean up efforts by the EPA and contractors during the mid-2000 period in Libby, Montana.

Rumple left the Office of Inspector General after the memo was issued in 2006, but returned in 2007 once his information had been verified by the OIG Office of Congressional and Public Liaison reviewed and issued a quick reaction report, " EPA Needs to Plan and Complete a Toxicity Assessment for the Libby Asbestos Clean Up." Despite the report, the criminal division of the U.S. Justice Department in the Bush era declined to prosecute for public corruption.

The resounding question posed by Cory Rumple is whether the clean up efforts were or are adequate to protect the health of an already beleagured town in Montana. Specifically, the documents provided to Libby residents while their homes were being cleaned up for asbestos contamination were not supported by a scientific basis or even within the rules of the EPA. Documents entitled, "Living With Vermiculite" and comfort letters to Libby residents were simply inaccurate and misleading. Rumple concluded the misleading information was not criminal, but led him to a larger concern about the dysfunctional nature of the actual clean up efforts.

In reading the Rumple Report, the disconnect between scientific methodology, the usual practices and protocols of the EPA and an attempt to wet-down the carpets and present a cheery face by an EPA spokesman is revealed. In order to pass the airborne asbetos test, contractors followed a "remedial" method in cleaning out residential homes and actually wetted down the carpets which in effect settled down the asbestos fibers from the air.

In other related information in the Rumple Report, the Southern District of New York allowing a law suit to go forward against former EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman. The gravamen of the suit was her acquiescence to various pressures to issue a statement that the air around the World Trade Center following the 911 disaster was free of dangerous toxic asbestos. The Court, citing the Libby asbestos health disaster chided Ms. Whitman for not taking into consideration "tests which revealed high levels of asbestos on September 17, 2001." Ultimately thousands of workers in the area were placed at a potental risk for asbestos contamination.

The conclusion of PEER after the belated release of the Rumple Report on April 28, 2009 is not just the lies and misleading information provided to the Libby residents, but whether the methodology and the clean up efforts over the past years has been effective. According, to PEER's, they are looking forward to airing out more bureaucratic closets in the future.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION:
The Contributor has no connection to nor was paid by the brand or product described in this content.

Published by Mary Anne

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