The owner of a former vermiculite mine in northwestern Montana that spread harmful asbestos in and around the town of Libby has offered $18.5 million to settle the last of the state’s claims for environmental damages, Gov. Greg Gianforte announced on Tuesday, the Associated Press reported. The proposed settlement was filed in W.R. Grace & Co.’s bankruptcy case in Delaware for the Libby Asbestos Superfund Site in Lincoln County. Asbestos from a vermiculite mine owned by W.R. Grace beginning in 1963 polluted the area until the mine was shuttered in 1990. Cleanup began in 2000, after media reports spurred federal officials to investigate widespread health problems among area residents. Health officials estimate that several thousand people have been sickened in northwest Montana from exposure to Libby’s asbestos and at least 400 have died. More than 2,600 homes, businesses and other properties were cleaned up at a cost of more than $600 million under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund program for hazardous sites. W.R. Grace agreed in a 2008 settlement to pay the EPA $250 million for cleanup work.
