How $100 million bought injustice in Libby, MontanaLibby, Montana - The vermiculite mine in Libby, Montana that caused one of the biggest asbestos disasters in American history was owned and operated by W.R. Grace & Co. The company covered up evidence that the vermiculite being mined was laden with asbestos and that it was the cause of the asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma – a rare cancer of the protective lining of the body’s major organs and cavities – that plagued miners and their families. All three are fatal illnesses and the cancers are so aggressive that even with surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, the standard mesothelioma treatment, patients rarely have a fighting chance of survival.
Two years after the EPA first visited Libby in 1999, Grace filed for bankruptcy protection, a move that President Paul Norris said was to protect the company from more than 325,000 asbestos-related personal-injury claims, which had already cost the company approximately $2 billion. However, Grace could not safeguard itself from criminal charges. In February 2004, Grace faced one of the biggest environmental crime prosecutions in American history. Grace and seven current and former executives and managers were charged with knowingly endangering the public and mine workers through asbestos exposure and concealing the knowledge of the exposure.
Yet what seemed to be an open and shut case, ended with 12 jurors acquitting the company and its directors of all charges last May. Grace’s 21 lawyers and about 100 law clerks and researchers were pitted against just three assistant U.S. attorneys. The defense spent well over $100 million, but if found guilty, Grace could have paid fines of up to $280 million, and company executives would have faced prison terms of up to 60 years.
