Team to oversee asbestos cleanup fund

HELENA — With the Libby Superfund Site slated to see federal environmental crews wrapping up work by the end of the year, the Montana Legislature is moving to establish an advisory team to oversee millions of state dollars to fund continued cleanup and maintenance.

Sponsored by Sen. Chas Vincent, the measure builds on legislation sponsored by the Libby Republican in 2015 that began setting aside half of the state’s mining and hazardous-waste settlement fund for the Superfund site spanning Libby, Troy and the surrounding area. Senate Bill 315 sets up a five-member advisory team to implement and monitor the state’s obligations under the cleanup plan and advise the department’s administration of cleanup and maintenance funds.

The new measure passed the House 100-0 earlier this week, after receiving a unanimous endorsement by the Senate last month. The Senate on Wednesday unanimously endorsed an amendment added by the House, with a final vote expected today. It then heads to the governor’s desk.

The advisory team would also oversee a new staff member within the Department of Environmental Quality who will act as a liaison between the department and Lincoln County. The environmental science specialist would be chosen by the governor from a short list of three candidates provided by the county commissioners.

“We have so much that we’re trying to figure out, what’s already happened, let alone what’s going to happen, and we want to at least be a voice in the discussion of how to define our own destiny, because we’re going to live with this forever and there’s some things that have yet to be dealt with,” Vincent said during a March 15 committee hearing on the bill. “They want somebody that has that capacity but is also tethered to the community, living in the community.”

Vincent’s 2015 bill called for annually appropriating $600,000, beginning in 2018, from a special state fund that includes $5.1 million paid to the state through the bankruptcy settlement of W.R. Grace, the company that owned and operated the mine and was found responsible for widespread asbestos contamination in and around the town.

Under the measure passed Tuesday, the Department of Environmental Quality would administer two funds receiving the settlement money. A special cleanup operations and maintenance account would receive 80 percent of the money, with the remainder deposited in the Libby Asbestos Cleanup Trust Fund.

Any remaining cleanup funds each year would be deposited in the trust fund. That permanent fund would continue accruing money until 2029, when interest could be used for remaining cleanup and maintenance at the Libby site.

In its fiscal analysis of the bill, the Department of Environmental Quality estimated that roughly half of the annual $600,000 appropriation would be transferred into the trust-fund account over the next four years, with the remainder paying for cleanup operations and personnel costs.

Reporter Sam Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or swilson@dailyinterlake.com.