Editor's Take
March 12, 2008
$250 Million for "Worst Environmental Disaster in U.S. History"
It's the largest chunk of cash the Superfund program has
received, but it’s still not close to covering the cost of cleaning up what the
EPA labeled “the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.” Baltimore’s
W.R. Grace & Co. will pay $250 million for contaminating Libby, Montana.
Hundreds have either fallen sick or died from breathing in asbestos. The
Seattle Post-Intelligencer has the definitive story for today. For more, see the
New
York Times, the Baltimore
Sun, and Missoula's
Missoulian.
A must-read primer on Libby,
Mont., is the Seattle
Post-Intelligencer’s investigative series, Uncivil Action. The
paper broke the story in 1999 and the extensive reportage led to the EPA taking
action. It’s like a small book on the subject. The interviews with Libby’s
residents are a punch in the stomach. It’s chilling.
Meanwhile, the L.A. Times reports on a new study by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), which has discovered that more mines are cropping up in urban areas in the West due to an ancient, ossified law circa 1872.
Is one coming to your backyard?
