Baucus Threatening EPA With Subpoenas Over Libby MT Asbestos Poisoning

[hatrack]

I'm sure they'll find a novel interpretation of "executive privelege" to cover this one, too.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Montana Sen. Max Baucus threatened Monday to subpoena the Environmental Protection Agency over why asbestos poisoning in Libby was never declared a public health emergency.

Baucus has requested five-year-old documents from the agency detailing deliberations over whether it would declare such an emergency. Baucus said such a declaration would have lead to more extensive cleanup and health protections for the town, which is home to the now-closed W.R. Grace and Co. vermiculite mine.

In a speech during a visit to Libby on Monday, EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson said he would get the documents to Baucus by Aug. 31. The vermiculite, used in a variety of household products, contained tremolite asbestos, which was released into the air and carried home on miners' clothing. The asbestos is blamed by some health authorities for killing about 200 people. The EPA, which has declared the area a Superfund site, first arrived in Libby in 1999, when news reports linked asbestos contamination from the mine to the deaths and illnesses.

EPA documents uncovered by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 2002 estimated that millions of American households contain a brand of insulation known as Zonolite, made for decades by W.R Grace. According to a report by that newspaper in December of that year, the EPA was expected to announce a warning about the Zonolite in April 2002 and declare a public health emergency. But the warning was not issued because of White House intervention, the newspaper said. The EPA has maintained it was behind the decision not to declare an emergency.

EDIT

http://www.flatheadbeacon.com/articles/article/baucus_threatens_epa_subpoenas_over_libby_asbestos/C52/612/