Rainy Creek asbestos potential threat to Kootenai River and fisheries?
by Duane Williams, KLCB-KTNY Radio
July 29, 2011
U. S. Senator Jon Tester is taking issue with the EPA again; this time concerning Rainy Creek contamination and unmonitored and unregulated threats to public health in Libby.
EPA has found testing of Rainy Creek reveals the creek water to contain 285 million asbestos fibers per liter of water, which is 40 times the allowable limit, with the potential to be even higher.
Rainy Creek is a direct tributary of the Kootenai River, and flows through the defunct W.R. Grace vermiculite mine before flowing into the Blue Ribbon Kootenai. It is interesting to note that some of the earliest cases of asbestos related disease were found in local fishermen who fish these waters.
Tester wants to know what the EPA plans to do about water sampling of potable water and how it intends to reduce the contamination and pathways of exposure in the creek and river. Will the EPA test fish in the river and issue fish consumption warnings for fish caught in the Kootenai, Tester wants to know.
Tester in a letter to Lisa Jackson, EPA administrator, said he is committed to the environmental remediation of Libby, to the health of Libby residents and to Libby's economic growth, something, he said, EPA's effectiveness in cleanup will determine the quality of the area's economy for years to come.
Tester plans to meet with Jackson prior to the August recess.
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Story by Duane Williams, KLCB-KTNY Radio, www.todaysbestcountryonline.com e-mail:klcb@frontiernet.net.
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