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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Inspector General
At a Glance
18-P-0074
January 24, 2018
Why We Did This Review
We assessed the U.S.
Environmental Protection
Agency's (EPA's) actions to
address recommendations in
two Office of Inspector General
(OIG) reports:
•	No. 2007-P-00002. EPA
Needs to Plan and
Complete a Toxicity
Assessment for the Libby
Asbestos Cleanup, issued
December 5, 2006.
•	No. 13-P-0221. Better
Planning, Execution and
Communication Could
Have Reduced the Delays
in Completing a Toxicity
Assessment of the Libby,
Montana, Superfund Site,
issued April 17, 2013.
The Deputy Administrator,
Assistant Administrator for
Land and Emergency
Management, Assistant
Administrator for Research and
Development, and Region 8
Regional Administrator were
responsible for completing the
recommendations in these
reports.
This report addresses the
following:
•	Cleaning up and revitalizing
land.
Send all inquiries to our public
affairs office at (202) 566-2391
or visit www.epa.gov/oia.
Follow-Up Review: EPA Completed OIG
Recommendations for Superfund Site
in Libby, Montana
What We Found
The EPA took corrective
actions that enabled the Libby
toxicity assessment to be
completed with transparency
and that provided
stakeholders with important
human exposure information.
In 2006, we reported that the EPA had not
completed a toxicity assessment of amphibole
asbestos in Libby, Montana, to determine a
safe level for human exposure. In 2013, we
conducted a follow-up review to determine
why the EPA did not meet its planned
milestones for completing the toxicity
assessment. We concluded that the EPA
could have made better progress in completing its work through improved
communication, planning and execution of actions.
The OIG's 2006 report contained two recommendations. The EPA completed
Recommendation 2 before we issued our 2006 report, but Recommendation 1,
which called for the funding and execution of the toxicity assessment, still
remained incomplete when we published our 2013 follow-up report. During this
current review, we verified that the EPA completed the agreed-upon corrective
actions for Recommendation 1 in December 2014 by releasing the toxicity
assessment report.
The OIG's 2013 report contained nine recommendations. The EPA completed
five of these recommendations shortly after we issued our 2013 report. During
this current review, we concluded that the EPA completed the agreed-upon
corrective actions for the remaining four recommendations, which called for
updating stakeholders on significant risks to milestones, establishing a charter,
ensuring that interagency agreement contracts are within the scope of the
interagency agreement, and developing a priority list for research work.
By completing these outstanding recommendations, the agency was able to
issue the toxicity assessment, make determinations on the effectiveness of the
EPA's cleanup, and assess whether additional remedial actions were required.
Furthermore, the EPA achieved these actions with transparency to stakeholders.
There are no recommendations in this report.
Agency Response and OIG Evaluation
The agency did not have any comments. The OIG has no additional comment.
Listing of OIG reports.

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