U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
                   Office of Inspector General

                   At  a   Glance
                                                             11-P-0430
                                                         Augusts, 2011
                                                                Catalyst for Improving the Environment
Why We Did This Review

In response to a congressional
request, we evaluated how the
U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) communicates
information to the public at
the Libby Asbestos Superfund
Site in Libby, Montana.

Background
The Libby site includes
portions of the towns of Libby
and Troy, Montana. An
inactive vermiculite mine
contaminated with naturally
occurring asbestos is located
7 miles outside of Libby.
About 12,000 people live
within a 10-mile radius of the
town of Libby. EPA has
conducted cleanup activities at
the Libby site since 2000.
EPA policy on community
involvement goes beyond the
letter of the law and
recommends implementing
additional activities to ensure
community participation in the
Superfund cleanup process.

For further information,
contact our Office of
Congressional, Public Affairs
and Management at
(202)566-2391.

The full report is at:
www.epa.qov/oiq/reports/2011/
20110803-11-P-0430.pdf
An Overall Strategy Can Improve
Communication Efforts at Asbestos Superfund
Site in Libby, Montana
 What We Found
Region 8 does not have an overall communication strategy to guide, coordinate,
and evaluate its communication efforts at the Libby Asbestos Superfund Site.
Despite extensive communication efforts that exceed minimum Superfund
requirements, Region 8 has not fully satisfied community concerns about health
risk or effectively communicated the limitations of its risk assessment. Libby
residents repeatedly raised questions about recontamination and EPA's ongoing
and planned activities, including the cleanup of operable unit 1 and activity-based
sampling events, even though Region 8 has provided information on those
subjects. Recurring questions may signify that Region 8 needs to address them
more clearly.

We also found that some Region 8 outreach products may be difficult for Libby
residents to understand. Some materials intended for the general public are written
for a highly educated audience. Understandable outreach products ensure that
Region 8's messages are successfully communicated to the public.

An overall communication strategy could help Region 8 assess the effectiveness of
and improve its communication activities. Region 8's community engagement
plan could serve as the overall communication strategy with the addition of
guidance-recommended elements. These elements include key messages,
timelines, measures of success, and mechanisms for identifying public concerns
and obtaining public feedback. The addition of these elements to the community
engagement plan may assist EPA in better addressing community concerns and
helping the public make informed decisions regarding risk.
                               What We Recommend
We recommend that the EPA Region 8 Regional Administrator ensure that Libby
outreach products are readable for a general audience. We also recommend that
the Regional Administrator revise the Libby community engagement plan to serve
as the overall communication strategy by adding key messages to address specific
public concerns and site activities, timelines for community involvement activities
and outreach products, measures for successful communication, and mechanisms
for identifying community concerns and collecting feedback. We also recommend
implementing a process for ongoing evaluation of Region 8's communication.
Region 8 agreed to take sufficient corrective actions.

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