The ASARCO mining company, which filed for bankruptcy in 2005, may be able to emerge this year now that parent company Grupo Mexico has agreed to assume the responsibility for paying asbestos lawsuit claims made against the company.

Grupo Mexico has made the offer partly to prevent the ASARCO company from putting itself up for sale. The parent company has therefore agreed to sponsor a reorganization plan that involves paying all legitimate claims that have been made against ASARCO.

Some estimates put the value of claims and other liabilities at tens of billions of dollars.

Among the total is several billion dollars worth of lawsuits relating to exposure to asbestos, lead, and other toxins. More than $165 million will be allotted to clean-up environmental damage in eight different Montana sites.

ASARCO filed for bankruptcy in 2005, and during the process a bankruptcy judge removed Grupo Mexico’s control over the company due to allegations that the parent company was stripping ASARCO’s assets.

On Monday, ASARCO filed documents indicating that it has reached an agreement with entities it owes money to, along with its intentions to sell itself to the highest bidder. The documents also included references to having six interested bidders.

The company said that the sale would raise enough money to resolve all asbestos and toxin-related liabilities as well as to fund the environmental clean-up. The company owns a total of twenty sites that are included on the EPA’s Superfund list.

Last month, the company managed to keep Hayden, the community that houses an ASARCO smelter, off the Superfund list by pledging to spend $13.5 million on soil testing on community property, and to cover the costs of any clean-up that might be needed.

The EPA had previously found carcinogens contaminating soil in Hayden and Winkelman, located nearby. Residents hope that ASARCO will either buy their contaminated properties, or pay for relocation.

Some residents have noted that the company seems willing to solve the community’s environmental problems, but it hasn’t always been that way.

Prior to the company’s bankruptcy declaration it used a 1912 deed to sue community residents to prevent them making claims for environmental damage the company had caused. The company alleged that the deed granted it the right to emit unlimited amounts of “smoke, dust, fumes and other deleterious matter” from the Hayden smelter without having to assume any liability for damage it might cause.

W.R. Grace & Co. has asked the United States Supreme Court to hear an appeal in a criminal case against the specialty chemical company that once mined asbestos-contaminated vermiculite in the town of Libby, Montana.

W.R. Grace & Co. manufactured asbestos-containing products from 1938 through to the 1970s. The company also owned and operated a vermiculite mine in Libby that was contaminated with asbestos. Millions of homes throughout the country contain Zonolite, an insulation product containing the contaminated vermiculite, and thousands of Libby residents have developed asbestos-related diseases such as mesothelioma and asbestosis as a result of working in or living near the mine.

After settling its current and future asbestos-related claims with the creation of a $3 billion trust fund, the company, as well as six of its former executives, still faces criminal charges relating to the contamination of Libby.

Under the terms of the recently-created settlement, W. R. Grace will pay up to $1.8 billion into the trust fund initially. An additional $1.55 billion will be paid into the fund between 2019 and 2034.

The trust fund is to be further supplemented by the addition of W.R. Grace & Co. stock options worth tens of millions of dollars, which will be available at a reduced price relative to current market value. The chemical company also agreed that its remaining insurance coverage would also be added to the fund.

The creation of the settlement trust fund is one more move that will allow the company to eventually emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The criminal charges relate to the company’s activities in Libby that involved the release of asbestos that injured or killed more than one thousand residents of the town. The company may face fines of up to $280 million, and the individuals may face prison terms of up to fifteen years, if convicted.

The company has also been charged with interfering with government clean-up efforts in the town.

In its appeal, W.R. Grace asked the high court to overturn a ruling made by a lower court. The ruling adopted a government definition of asbestos developed under the federal Clean Air Act.

The former vermiculite-mining company claims that according to the government definition, only 5% of the material is released in Libby is applicable to the criminal charges in the case.

Chemical manufacturer W.R. Grace & Co. is to set up a trust fund containing up to $3 billion, to be used for settling current and future asbestos-related claims against the company. The agreement includes hundreds of millions in cash, as well as warrants for ten million stock shares at $17 each.

This new agreement, along with the recent $250 million payment to the US federal Superfund for the ongoing clean-up of Libby, Montana, will eventually allow W.R. Grace to emerge from bankruptcy without the burden of any future asbestos liability claims.

W.R. Grace & Co. manufactured asbestos-containing products from 1938 through to the 1970s. The company also owned and operated a vermiculite mine in Libby that was contaminated with asbestos. Millions of homes throughout the country contain Zonolite, an insulation product containing the contaminated vermiculite, and thousands of Libby residents have developed asbestos-related diseases such as mesothelioma and asbestosis as a result of working in or living near the mine.

Under the terms of the settlement, W. R. Grace will pay an initial sum of up to $1.8 billion into the trust fund. An additional sum of up to $1.55 billion will be paid into the fund between 2019 and 2034. The fund will be further supplemented by the addition of stock options. The chemical company also agreed that its remaining insurance coverage would also be added to the fund.

The money will be used to settle claims of victims of the company’s asbestos products, including the contaminated insulation.

The settlement announcement was made during a scheduled bankruptcy hearing before Judge Judith Fitzgerald, who has been presiding over the W.R. Grace bankruptcy case. The plan must be approved by Judge Fitzgerald before the company can begin to emerge from bankruptcy.

There will still be more trouble to come for W.R. Grace & Co. even after the bankruptcy case is settled. The company, as well as six of its former executives, still faces criminal charges relating to the contamination of Libby. The company may face fines of up to $280 million, and the individuals may face prison terms of up to fifteen years, if convicted.

Meanwhile, W.R. Grace & Co. shares rose by $2.34 to reach a value of $27.19 within just a few hours of the news of the company’s bankruptcy deal.

Mining company W.R. Grace has seen plenty of activity in its bankruptcy proceedings over the last week, as a New Jersey environmental agency has been barred from filing a lawsuit against the company.

Last week, presiding bankruptcy Judge Judith Fitzgerald ruled that the company’s bankruptcy proceedings would not be affected if residents of Libby, Montana, were allowed to file lawsuits against the state of Montana.

This week, Judge Fitzgerald has ordered the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to drop a lawsuit it had filed against W.R. Grace in 2005, and has effectively barred the agency from imposing fines on the company for alleged wrongdoing relating to asbestos contamination.

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection filed the lawsuit in an attempt to collect $800 million in fines that it imposed on the company for allegedly lying about asbestos contamination in New Jersey.

The lawsuit filed by the NJDEP claims that the W.R. Grace company lied about the dangers of asbestos for more than forty years, in connection to a vermiculite-processing plant in Hamilton, New Jersey. The vermiculite was mined at the Libby, Montana mine that was contaminated with asbestos.

W.R. Grace closed down the Libby, Montana vermiculite mine in 1990, but the Hamilton, New Jersey processing plant remained open until 1994.

When the Hamilton plant was closed, the W.R. Grace company submitted an environmental report to the NJDEP, saying that the vermiculite the company had mined did not contain harmful levels of asbestos. As a result, the state decided that the site did not need to be cleaned up.

It is now almost common knowledge, however, that the vermiculite mine was in fact contaminated with asbestos. In 200, the Environmental Protection Agency tested the Hamilton site and found high asbestos concentrations.

W.R. Grace filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on April 2, 2001, thus protecting the company from lawsuits. To date, an estimated 250,000 lawsuits have been settled or dismissed against the company, and there are an estimated 120,000 lawsuits still remaining.

Judge Judith Fitzgerald, in banning the NJDEP from continuing with its $800 million lawsuit, said that the state’s suit had been blocked by the legal action protection provided by Chapter 11 bankruptcy. However, the state of New Jersey had claimed that the lawsuit should be exempt from Chapter 11 protection because they acted to protect public health and safety, and as an exercise of the state’s regulatory power.

A bankruptcy judge has ‘left the door open’ for residents of Libby, Montana who have been affected by the asbestos-related problems the town suffers. That open door might allow residents to sue the State of Montana.

Libby is the town where W.R. Grace mined asbestos-contaminated vermiculite for many years. Many residents of the town—even those who didn’t work at the mine, or live with anyone who did—have developed asbestos-related diseases as a result of W.R. Grace’s mining activities. Libby, Montana has been an EPA Superfund site for almost a decade, and the EPA has been cleaning up the town for almost as long.

W.R. Grace’s has been a defendant in a large number of lawsuits (an estimated 150,000 have been dismissed or settled, with an estimated 120,000 remaining), and filed for bankruptcy in 2001, over a decade after the closure of the contaminated vermiculite mine in 1990.

Civil cases relating to the vermiculite mine in Libby were stopped at the time the company declared bankruptcy. The company has in the past been indicted on criminal charges relating to its activities in Libby. W.R. Grace also recently agreed to pay $250 million to the federal government as reimbursement for past and future clean-up activities in the Montana town.

Judge Judith Fitzgerald, who is the presiding judge in W.R. Grace’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, has rejected an injunction that would have barred lawsuits against the state of Montana.

This means that residents of Libby may be able to file lawsuits against Montana, and argue that the state did not do enough to protect residents from asbestos exposure. Among the allegations against Montana are that the state was negligent in failing to warn both mine workers and Libby residents that the contamination in the vermiculite mine was potentially dangerous.

The ruling was signed last week and filed on Monday March 31 with the US Bankruptcy Court. In the ruling, Judge Fitzgerald said that W.R. Grace’s bankruptcy proceedings would not be threatened by lawsuits against the state of Montana that related to the state’s alleged failure to monitor W.R. Grace’s mining activities.

Judge Fitzgerald first made the ruling in 2007, but made the decision to stay the ruling after W.R. Grace and the state of Montana made a request for reconsideration. The ruling made on Monday denies the motion to reconsider the decision.

To date, more than 1,200 residents or former mine workers have died or claimed injury as a result of living near or working in the W.R. Grace vermiculite mines operating in Libby.

March 18, 2008 - Around 1,100 surveys were mailed to residents of Libby, Montana on February 22 this year, with a further 100 mailed to Center for Asbestos Related Disease (CARD) patients. Nearly a month later, almost 400 completed surveys have been returned to CARD. The surveys were sent out as part of a project known as “Voices of Libby.”

Dr Brad Black, director of the CARD clinic, says the CARD survey is attempting to collect information about how asbestos issues have affected individuals within the community, as well as the town of Libby as a whole. In addition the survey is intended to determine what the most common issues and opinions about asbestos are, and what has influenced opinions about asbestos in the town.

A total of 1,200 survey recipients were selected randomly from among Libby’s residents to ensure that different types of people would take part in the survey. CARD is collaborating with the Karmanos Cancer Institute of Michigan and the Lincoln County Campus of Flathead Community College to carry out the survey.

The senior investigator is Karmanos Cancer Institute senior scientist Dr. Rebecca Kline, who became involved with research centered on Libby three years ago in 2005. Kline says her focus is on understanding “how people process information about asbestos” in the country as a whole, as well as Libby in particular.

Kline’s special are of research is on “slow motion” technological disasters of the kind that occurred in Libby. These types of disasters are so called because they happen over a period of months or even years, as opposed to disasters such as earthquake, fire, or flood.

As well as surveys, Kline has also been involved in conduction focus groups in which Libby residents and researchers discuss asbestos issues more intensively.

Kline says that learning from people in Libby via surveys and focus groups will provide important and useful information that can be used to help not only residents of Libby, but also other people around the country who have been involved in slow-motion disasters. The survey information will help researchers determine where efforts on community education and outreach need to be focused.

According to Rebecca Kline, the opinions of Libby residents are important to help CARD and the Karmanos Institute determine what the “representative point of view” is in the town regarding asbestos issues. CARD clinic director Brad Black also noted that the survey is important because it helps Libby residents “know that their voice will be heard.”

Residents who took part in the survey have been thanked with a random drawing with gift certificates as prizes. Kline also says the research team appreciates the support of the community, and intends to return to Libby to report to the community on their research findings.

March 12, 2008,  – Global chemical manufacturer W.R. Grace has agreed to pay a record $250 million to fund the removal of asbestos in Libby, Montana. This agreement finally settles a claim brought by the federal government in 2001 under the Superfund law.

It has been approximately eight years since the media first reported on the northwest Montana town’s asbestos problem. More than two hundred residents of Libby have died from asbestos-related diseases. The figure includes many people who never worked at the W.R. Grace-owned zonolite mine that was the source of the asbestos contamination.

EPA officials have said that the $250 million is, to date, the biggest Superfund settlement for the purpose of cleaning up a polluted site. According to the terms of the settlement W.R. Grace must pay the $250 million within thirty days of approval by a Delaware federal bankruptcy court (the company filed for bankruptcy in 2001).

If the settlement is approved by the court, the money will be paid into an independent Superfund account, to be used to recoup money already spent, and to pay for future clean-up and investigations. A total of $11 million will be set aside for future asbestos education programs and special projects such as emergency housing clean-up.

Over the last eight years, the EPA has spent around $168 million cleaning up asbestos contamination in Libby. Some of the money spent has also paid for medical check-ups and diagnostic medical tests for thousands of residents of the town.

EPA emergency coordinator Paul Peronard, who has been involved with the Libby clean-up since 1999 and is the EPA team leader for the project, says that up to an additional $175 million may be needed to complete the remediation.

Peronard says he doesn’t believe that remediation attempts will be completed in the near future, due to the enormous scope of the project, and the fact that Libby is such a heavily contaminated site.

The EPA has been removing asbestos in the town for eight years. In 2001 the federal government filed suit against W.R. Grace to recover costs of investigation and clean-up, and the company was forced to file for bankruptcy as a result of thousands of asbestos-related lawsuits.

In 2003, U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy ordered W.R. Grace to pay $54.5 million to the EPA to cover asbestos clean-up costs, but the money was not paid due to bankruptcy. The $250 million settlement finally resolved that judgment, too.

The W.R. Grace criminal trial is expected to open in Missoula by June of this year. Federal prosecutors will use as evidence a number of investigations and studies carried out by the EPA.
On federal study indicated that more than residents of Libby and the surrounding area had developed lung abnormalities as a result of mining operations. These abnormalities were present not only in mine workers, but in residents who had never worked at the mine.

The record $250 million settlement finally makes the chemical company financially responsible for cleaning up Libby. The process of deciding whether W.R. Grace knowingly endangered the town will begin in just a few months, at the criminal trial.

HELENA, Montana - After years of litigation and negotiation, W.R. Grace has agreed to pay $250 million in reimbursement for government expenses in the cleanup of asbestos contamination at Libby, Montana.

The settlement was announced today by the U.S. Justice Department and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It is the highest settlement in the history of the Superfund program for environmental cleanups. The deal settles a claim the government filed against Grace to for past and future costs of cleaning up the site and surroundings of the former Grace vermiculite mine located just outside Libby.

The mine was owned and operated by the W.R. Grace & Co. until the early 1990s. It stopped operation mid-1990, and was officially closed in 1994. For decades previous, Grace had extracted tons of vermiculite every day from the mine. The vermiculite was contaminated with asbestos, a mineral that has been inextricably connected to mesothelioma, a rare cancer that is caused by exposure to asbestos fibers. Each day that the mine was in operation, it pumped tons of asbestos into the air to be breathed in by the residents of Libby.

Since 1994, over 1,200 residents of Libby have been diagnosed with asbestos-related diseases, including mesothelioma, lung cancer, asbestos cancer, and asbestosis. The Environmental Protection Agency has been working with residents of Libby and various environmental cleaning firms to decontaminate the mine and all the surrounding area by removing the asbestos-laden dirt and other asbestos-containing materials. Among other things, the EPA has removed tons and tons of dirt from around the mine itself, torn up a track at the local high school because it was made with asbestos-laced materials, and removed a skating rink from the Libby Middle School that was made with asbestos-containing materials. The cleanup has been going on since about 2000, and is expected to continue for years to come.

In 2003, a federal court in Montana awarded a judgment of $54 million to cover the initial cleanup costs, but the judgment was never paid because the company declared bankruptcy. The judgment covers that 2003 settlement and adds on additional costs incurred since then and future estimated costs of cleaning up the town and surrounding areas.

The settlement now must be approved by the bankruptcy court. Once approved, the company will have thirty days to pay the fine to the EPA. The EPA will hold the settlement in a special account within the Superfund to pay for future cleanup costs at Libby.

March 14, 2008, Cincinnati, Ohio - New research from the University of Cincinnati (UC) confirms that workers who were exposed more than two decades ago to low levels of an asbestos-like mineral have an increased risk of developing lung disease.

The mineral in question is vermiculite, a mineral with a fluffy, flaky structure. Previous studies carried out on the substance indicate that the vermiculite mined in Libby, Montana contained elevated levels of an asbestos-like fiber that could become airborne and inhaled during manufacturing processes that use the mineral.

The study was carried out over a 25-year period, and followed workers at a plant which until 1980 had used vermiculite mined in Libby. Current chest x-rays indicated that one fifth of the workers who were exposed to low level airborne fibers have showed changes in the lining of their lungs.

For workers exposed to high levels of airborne vermiculite, 54% of workers had lung changes as recorded by chest x-rays.
Senior research investigator James Lockey, MD says the study shows that the asbestos-like mineral in Libby vermiculite can cause chest x-ray changes at low levels of exposure that were previously not thought to have an effect.

Lockey, a UC professor of pulmonary and environmental health, says that the health effects of exposure are not immediate for manufacturing workers exposed to Libby vermiculite, but they should ensure their doctors are aware of the past exposure.

Once inhaled, the body has great difficulty expelling the asbestos-like fibers. They tend to lodge in lung tissue, causing chronic inflammation that eventually leads to lung disease or asbestos cancer.

Headed by Lockey, the UC research team conducted their 25-year study on workers who had worked with lawn care products containing the vermiculite mined in Libby. Of the original 513 workers the study started with, around 84% were still alive at the end of it, and a total of 280 workers participated fully in the study over the 25 year period.

In the study, workers underwent chest x-rays and interviews to answer questions about their job history and lung health. The chest x-rays were reviewed separately by three independent radiologists.

Among the findings were results indicating that the exposure to Libby vermiculite had caused thickening of the pleural membrane that surrounds the lungs. In cases of asbestos exposure, changes such as these can precede the development of asbestosis or mesothelioma.

Before the Libby vermiculite mine closed in 1990 it had provided up to 80% of the world’s supply of the mineral, which was widely used in home insulation, construction materials, gardening products, and packing materials. Vermiculite is now mined from sources that are not contaminated with the asbestos-like fibers.

James Lockey says the UC study highlights the need to consider the dangers not only of asbestos, but also of asbestos-like minerals that contaminate some natural mineral sources.

LIBBY, Montana – Students at an elementary school in Libby, Montana found asbestos-containing material leaking from a whole in the outside wall of their school on Friday.

Libby, best-known as the most asbestos-contaminated town in the country, is no stranger to problems with asbestos. The little town is at the center of one of the worst environmental damage stories of the last decades. Until 1990, W.R. Grace & Company operated a vermiculite mine just outside their borders. In its heyday, the Libby mine supplied close to 90% of all vermiculite sold and used in the United States.

During most of that time, it has been proven, the officials of W.R. Grace were aware that the vermiculite mine was contaminated with asbestos, but hid the knowledge rather than close the mine or institute measures to clean the vermiculite prior to shipping. In addition, the mine operations filled the air around Libby with tons of airborne asbestos fibers, nearly 24 hours a day.

As a result of their callous disregard for the health of the citizens of Libby and of the general population, Grace officials have been indicted on federal charges for violation of the Clean Air Act. In addition, the company faces billions in possible liabilities from people exposed to asbestos through their products. The EPA has assessed the company millions of dollars in cleanup costs and fines, and the cleanup continues to this day.

Since 1994, when Grace divested itself of the Libby mine, over 1,200 people in the small area around Libby have been diagnosed with various asbestos related diseases, including asbestosis, pleural scarring, lung cancer and pleural mesothelioma. A new medical center in town will specialize in treatment of asbestos related diseases and is hoped to become one of the foremost sources of information about mesothelioma in the world.

It’s estimated that most homes in Libby contain asbestos – most likely in the form of Grace’s flagship product, Zonolite attic insulation. Likewise, during its tenure at the Libby mine, Grace was generous with the community – there are records that the company often donated waste material from the mine for other uses, including some uses at local schools.
Friday, students at the Asa Wood Elementary School found a hole in the wall of their school with what appeared to be asbestos-containing vermiculite leaking from the hole. School superintendent Kirby Maki said that the hole was probably caused by an excavator during snow removal last month.

The students alerted a teacher, who in turn called the principal. The school contacted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

A cleanup crew from the EPA removed the vermiculite and took it to a nearby landfill with asbestos capabilities. The hole was repaired, and the building was inspected for any further leakage.

An EPA spokesman says the rest of the vermiculite at the school is safe because it’s encapsulated in the walls. When asbestos can become airborne, it becomes a hazardous air pollutant that can cause serious health problems, including asbestos cancer and mesothelioma.