In Vermont, Former Mine Owner Agrees to Help Fund Belvidere Cleanup

Former Mine Owner Agrees to Help Fund Belvidere Cleanup

The Belvidere Mountain asbestos mine in northern Vermont was opened in 1899 under the guidance of owner Judge M. E. Tucker. By the 1960's, an average of 3,500 tons of chrysotile asbestos ores were being removed daily. By the late 1970's, asbestos-related health issues coming to light were beginning to depress the asbestos market, and the mine closed in 1993 when its then-owner, New Jersey-based G-1 Holdings, went bankrupt.

Last week, G-1 agreed to a settlement that will help fund the cleanup, but the reorganization plan only calls for a payment of $08.6 cents on the dollar, or 8.6 percent of the roughly $300 million needed to clean the former asbestos mine site, or about $26 million.

The settlement, announced July 6, is a joint agreement between G-I Holdings, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, and the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation.

The main site, which covers 1,673 acres, is actually known as the Vermont Asbestos Group Mine Site, or VAG Site, and is the most relevant of the 12 other sites around the country where G-I may have disposed of asbestos-laden mine wastes or repurposed them into road surfaces and construction materials.

This area, according to a federal compliant filed in New Jersey, has two huge piles of mine and mill tailings which are deteriorating and affecting watersheds downstream of the piles. Unfortunately, the piles also attract their share of hikers, rock collectors, ATVers and curious children, all of whom may become exposed to airborne asbestos, or cause the piles to further deteriorate and spill into nearby streams.

Asbestos, released into the air, can lodge in the lungs or be swallowed and pass into the digestive system. Once there, the body has no natural mechanisms to remove it. Unlike bacteria or other toxins, asbestos remains inside for a lifetime, often leading to diseases like asbestosis (a respiratory ailment), lung and digestive system cancers, and mesothelioma, one of the "Silent Killer" diseases for which few remedies are available. Most victims of mesothelioma are given about a year to live once the disease is diagnosed.

According to the terms of the settlement, G-I will immediately begin fencing the perimeter of the piles, install gates and block roads and trails onto the property. It will also secure the abandoned mill buildings, monitor the piles for airborne asbestos releases, engage in suppressing such releases, and provide support to the EPA and the Vermont DEC when future sampling and monitoring is engaged in.

The remediation is expected to take eight years, and cost up to $7.75 million. G-I is also directed to repay the federal and state governments for past and future cleanup costs at both the VAG site and nine other sites, at a cost of $104,615 for the latter. Lastly, G-I has agreed to pay $850,000 for damage to local wetlands and waterways caused by the heaped and abandoned tailings.

As a final concession, G-I agreed to allow the federal government up to 10 years to assess the damages and chargeback cleanup costs for three other related sites near Linden, New Jersey. The consent decree is subject to a 30-day public comment period from the date of filing (July 2), and to final approval by the federal court.

The only hopeful thing about the whole episode is a recent discovery by scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey that indicates asbestos ores and the minerals they contain may sequester carbon dioxide. If so, the final repurposing of VAG's abandoned asbestos piles might actually be good for the environment, for a change.

Sources: US Dept of Justice, Vermont Geological Survey, Vermont Public Radio

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