EPA Targets Homes for Removal of Asbestos
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The Environmental Protection Agency plans to begin immediately removing asbestos-laced insulation from hundreds of homes in the small town of Libby.
While the EPA has agreed to strip the hazardous insulation from attics and from behind the walls of about 800 homes, aides to Administrator Christie Whitman said they don’t believe the agency will be pressed into such action elsewhere.
The EPA has been cleaning up asbestos-contaminated sites around the former mining town in western Montana on an emergency basis since 1999. The agency had expressed reluctance to take on the task of cleaning contaminated insulation from homes, at an estimated $3,000 to $20,000 per house, out of concerns that it might set a precedent for homes elsewhere.
The asbestos contamination comes from a now-closed vermiculite mine.
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