Trenton Times, Darryl R. Isherwood
Published March 26, 2005
HAMILTON - Former workers and their families, environmental advocacy groups and local, state and federal elected officials expressed outrage yesterday about a newly uncovered report showing federal officials knew as early as 1985 of the health risk posed by asbestos from the W.R. Grace plant here.
The 1985 report, conducted for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and reported about in yesterday's Times, said 92,000 people who lived and worked around the plant on Industrial Drive were at risk from exposure to asbestos-contaminated vermiculite processed there to make insulation and fire-proofing products.
Yesterday, Rep. Chris Smith, R-Hamilton, sent a letter to the federal Committee on Government Reform asking for a sweeping probe of the EPA's handling of issues relating to the mine in Libby, Mont., where asbestos-contaminated vermiculite processed by the Hamilton plant originated.
Smith also asked for an investigation into the handling of the 1985 information that plant employees and neighbors were in danger.
In addition, state Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein, D-Plainsboro, joined Mayor Glen Gilmore's call for investigatory action.
The family of two former workers reacted emotionally, saying the EPA information should have been shared with workers. If it had, said Denise McCall, whose husband Bobby died in January, many might still be alive.
"It upsets me and depresses me," she said. "If they would have come out and told us what they knew, he would have left there, I know he would have. He would never have jeopardized his life and his family's lives for that job."
McCall worked at the plant from the 1970s until the 1990s and suffered for years from asbestos-related diseases.
The plant was not kind to the McCall family. In 2000, Bobby's father, Jim, died of a disease his family believes was related to asbestos exposure.
His widow Helen grieves alongside Denise for the men they lost to the plant.
As before when new information about the Hamilton plant has emerged, elected officials have stepped up to try to help former workers and their families, residents of the surrounding neighborhoods and employees of the paper-shredding company that currently occupies the building.
In 2001, after the 1985 report and similar ones were brought to light by the EPA team investigating the Libby mine, EPA officials requested an investigation by the U.S. Office of the Inspector General (OIG) into why no actions had been taken.
The audit revealed several flaws in the way the early studies were handled and outlined four "barriers" to addressing the asbestos problem in Libby.
Yesterday Smith advocated an investigation by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) to ensure that barriers identified by the OIG in 2001 were fixed and would no longer keep the EPA from addressing the issue in Hamilton and elsewhere.
"It remains unclear whether the EPA has overcome the various barriers and internal problems that prevented it from taking the necessary public health action many years ago," the letter said.
Smith also asked for an inquiry into the actions of Environmental Resources Management, the consultant hired by W.R. Grace in 1994 to report on potential contamination of the grounds.
Grace closed the plant and the firm reported that no testing for asbestos was necessary. The state Department of Environmental Protection took the consultants' word and required no further action.
Yesterday, Smith said he has been assured that the EPA will refer the matter to the agency's Criminal Investigation Division.
Greenstein has joined Hamilton Mayor Gilmore in asking for an investigation by the state attorney general into W.R. Grace.
In strong language, Greenstein outlined the potential case against Grace. She took her request further than Gilmore, suggesting possible criminal or civil action against the DEP for its failure to follow up on the Grace consultant's report.
"Aside from the potential liability issue the state may face, it would appear that W.R. Grace violated longstanding health and environmental laws," the letter to Attorney General Peter Harvey stated. "More alarmingly, the company may have been the beneficiary of irresponsible - perhaps even criminal - government oversight decisions."
Reached yesterday, Greenstein said she also hopes to set up a committee inquiry into the actions of the DEP and Grace in declaring the site clean.
"I would like to get all of the parties involved in a room and hear what they have to say," she said.
Gilmore also reacted strongly to the disclosure that the EPA was aware of the Hamilton plant's dangers 15 years before it acted.
"It's unconscionable, but not completely surprising, either," Gilmore said. "It's difficult to understand how that information could be ignored and not followed up with by real action. It's just hard to believe."
Gilmore, who last week promised to hire a firm to conduct soil testing in the neighborhoods surrounding the plant, said he hoped to identify the firm as early as Monday. The testing would begin soon after, he said.
The Washington-based advocacy organization Environmental Working Group (EWG) also weighed in on the failure of the EPA to take action on the information it had.
"The EPA knew that asbestos was literally causing a public health crisis, but it withheld that information from the public including the people around the Hamilton facility," said EWG President Ken Cook. "It's an outrage the EPA kept quiet about the risk and that they still haven't banned this stuff."
Amid the clamor for accountability by activists and elected officials, a widow's reaction spoke the loudest.
Denise McCall said though it was difficult to talk about her husband of 30 years, she would continue to do so as long as it took for the lesson of Bobby's death to be learned.
"Bobby can't speak for himself, so I'm going to speak for him," she said.
