Deal may mine a new start
Toolbox
By Louis Porter Vermont Press Bureau - Published: July 6, 2009
There is hope in the towns around Belvidere Mountain, including Eden and Lowell, that a federal settlement with the former owner of the massive asbestos mine there could mark the start of life returning to normal.
The rural and wooded towns, less well off than many parts of the state, depend in large part on summer camps, tourism and logging for their livelihoods. Residents said it is hard to tell whether houses there are not selling because of the economy or because of fears – unjustified according to locals – of the mine brought on by recent government attention. And they still have questions about how the settlement will play out in their communities.
The mine, closed since the early 1990s, was once the largest chrysotile, or white asbestos, mine in the country. Since its closure, runoff from the mountain of mine tailings or waste rock from the site has damaged wetlands and washed off the property occasionally. Those mine tailings also have been used over the decades for road construction, well building and other purposes in a large number of towns in a wide swath around the mine.
Under the settlement between the U.S. Department of Justice (working for the Environmental Protection Agency) and G-1 Holdings Inc., the company – now in bankruptcy – will secure the site and make sure that all-terrain vehicle riders and others, who still are using the site, will be kept out by fences and gates.
If the settlement, which also was agreed to by the state of Vermont, is approved by bankruptcy court the company also will establish and fund a trust that will cover other costs for containing, monitoring doing some clean up of the site. That trust will be responsible for up to $7.75 million worth of air monitoring, dust suppression and security measures over eight years.
In addition, under the agreement the company will cover about 8.6 percent of $300 million, the estimate of what future clean-up costs will be and pay $850,000 for runoff damage to wetlands and other waterways near the site, according to the settlement.
G-1 also will be responsible for $104,615 at nine superfund sites around the country that it or its predecessor companies also were involved with.
"The intent is that EPA and the state will work together on whatever cleanup is decided as we go forward," said Sabina Haskell of the state Agency of Natural Resources. "Most important is that right away it is going to secure that site."
"That is very important because people are still accessing the mine, which is not a good idea," she said.
"We are very satisfied with the settlement," she added. "They have been negotiating for upwards of a year."
Rep. Floyd Nease, who represents Eden and other near-by towns, said he still wonders how the matter will play out.
"It's great there is some accountability," Nease said. "At the same time it is a company that is in bankruptcy."
But, Nease noted, the amount of the G-1 settlement is far less than the estimated total for cleaning up the site.
"I need to know why there is that big a discrepancy," he said. "The other question is how does this interact with the effort to put it on the superfund list. I don't have answers to those questions."
Some residents say more damage has been done by the attention brought to the mine by the government than by the tailings pile itself.
Late last year the Vermont Department of Health issued a report making a connection between living in the towns around the mine and health risks. That report was updated by the state later, and that connection was discounted.
"All of the five asbestosis-related deaths that occurred in towns surrounding the mine during the years 1996 to 2005 can be explained by occupational exposure to asbestos," according to a more recent update of the study.
But those who have lived around the mine all their lives did not believe in that health risk – but they did believe in the potential for lowered property values because of the release of the study, said Bruce Burnor, owner of the Eden Mini Mart.
"We all grew up here. All of our roads are made up of that asbestos rock," he said.
"It's kind of a laughing stock to people who grew up here," Burnor said. But "the health department really put a scare into people" mostly about the risk that they would not be able to sell their property, he said.
There are many houses and camps for sale, and few are selling, but it is hard to tell if that is because of the economy or because of fears about the asbestos tailings, Burnor said.
"It is kind of hard to tell. There is a lot of property for sale, but there is everywhere because of the economy," he said. "Property is not selling at all. Is that because of the economy?"
Burnor said it would probably be best simply to leave the tailings pile alone.
"If you go up there and start working you stir up dust you are just making it worse," said.
Betty Jones, who owns property next to the mine, agreed. And covering the rock pile will likely not work, either, she added.
"If they cover it it is so steep the cover will slide with the first snowstorm," she said.
There is still a tremendous amount of anger over how the state handled the report about the mine, she added.
"Nobody has thought a thing about it until they started prowling around here," she said. "They hadn't paid any attention to it for years."
"Most people feel just leave it alone," agreed Warren Whitcomb III, chairman of Eden's Select board.
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