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Libby is a strange place. In the morning, the Cabinet Mountains sparkle, sporting new snow way up on the highest peaks. Folks arrive at work, open the front doors of their businesses and shout out "Mornin'" from across the street. Joggers pass by my house, dodging a stray doe that lingers after a night of garden feasting.
Yes, this is also the town that in July was declared a "disaster area." The Environmental Protection Agency described what happened to this town as the worst case of industrial poisoning of a community in American history. Libby is covered with asbestos, or more accurately, it was.
For close to 70 years, the same corporation that inspired the movie A Civil Action mined asbestos-containing vermiculite close to the town. For years, the workers drove to the mine along the banks of the magnificent Kootenai River. Most mornings, they were probably smiling because they knew they had the best jobs in town. There was medical insurance and vacation, pension, sick leave, decent hours and good pay.
They took the raw ore from the mountain and crushed it, sifted it and loaded it. Pictures in the public library in Libby show the mine sending up a 50-foot-tall plume of dust. The plume also contained lung-destroying asbestos that fed into air currents coming off the Kootenai high country. Of course, there's no mining today, though you wouldn't know it from the recent media coverage. From Fox News to Democracy Now, they've all picked up on the disaster bandwagon, and they've all made Libby look like a death town.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
This is a place where folks tool victoriously into the parking lot of the supermarket where I work, a little too fast, perhaps, sometime in November. They are excited to show their friends and neighbors the moose, or seven-point elk, or maybe even a cougar, lying stiff and silent in the back of their pickup. This is a place where a 10-minute drive and another 10-minute walk will give you a chance of seeing bighorn sheep. Take a short drive upriver and look up on the top of the power poles, and you'll spot osprey nests and a bald eagle or two.
And the people? They're the best. My weeds were too high, and so I got a ticket. A friend offered his teenage boys to weed-whack. The next day, when I arrived home for lunch, the dandelions had been buzzed, the goldenrod clipped and the grass trimmed just right. A neighbor said, "Oh, Frank was here today." No teenage sons, just my neighbor, who was born and raised in Libby.
But I'm not a Pollyanna. Sometimes at the market I see someone struggling to pull an oxygen tank. There is the man who tries to hide how hard it is for him to lift his gallon of milk up and onto my check stand. I want to jump over the counter and do it for him. Some—no, many—of my neighbors have asbestosis. A much smaller number suffer from mesothelioma, cancer of the inner lining of the lungs, a disease pretty much unheard of except in folks who have breathed in a lot of asbestos.
Most mornings, in the deli seating area of the market, broad-shouldered, gray-haired men drink coffee and talk about the new porch or the firewood deadfall up on Granite Creek. Sitting right next to them is a twentysomething peering at Facebook, taking advantage of the new Wi-Fi available here. There is no disconnect; everybody gets along. Folks will balk at a concert ticket over $10, but gladly spend $50 at the American Legion benefit for someone's wife who has cancer.
But there is a disconnect for those of us who have recently arrived, who are in minimal danger of contamination, who have had our small-windowed, tin-roofed houses cleaned up by the government, and our yards excavated and filled back in, those of us fortunate enough to have grown up playing in sawdust rather than piles of asbestos-contaminated dirt.
Now, we are privileged to live in one of the most beautiful places in the world. We can take our pick of 20 lakes with their trout, kokanee salmon, bass, perch and pike. Newcomers like me and the grizzlies just up the mountain have figured out that this is a promised land.
Our family and friends in places like California don't know it, though, and some think we are living in a death town. We are not. We are living in a town that has endured more hardship, loss and sadness than any town could ever deserve, but it is a town that's still very much alive.
Moira Blazi is a contributor to Writers on the Range, a service of High Country News (hcn.org). Not long ago she moved from Santa Barbara, California, to Libby, Montana.
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Libby continues to be the best example of what can be accomplished in the face of adversity. This was a town that had the odds stacked not in its favor, yet it survives. Asbestos in Libby is no longer any more dangerous that any place else in America. The mine has been closed for 20 years now and the EPA has been cleaning up the residual product for the past 9 years. Libby is on the way to be the safest place in America when it comes to Asbestos. Everyone who comes to Libby continues to be awed by Libby and the surrounding area. I would encourage anyone to visit Libby for yourself. This article only touches the surface on the people of Libby. This is what a community should strive for.
And last - I dont feel I need to go into the issues of the last post - I dont know who Mike is - but after looking at past post on the web you get a clear idea of what his agenda is and why he is so bitter about Libby. I will not go into his past issues here, but you need to see Libby for yourself and make your own decision.
And I too want all of you to deside for yourself and of course your children and Grandchildren.Kathy, Libby is not safe and those moving to Libby since 1999 WILL be told just like 2000 plus were told in 1999 why THEY are sick and dying.Had someone told my parents in 1966 what lies ahead,I know for a fact we would not have moved to Libby.I know my Dad thought more of his kids to allow them to be exposed to something that has and is killing all of us.And Kathy,my agenda is to save people.To tell the truth to educate the people to that truth that will save their lives from a deadly exposure/air of Libby.I have spent over 10 years now warning people to the truth and most have took the extra time to see I am not the nut people like you make me out to be.Amazing what people call who care about other people and children.I do have to wonder what kind of a person you are as I do for all those who sell/tell Libby is safe to innocent people/families who will suffer till death as I and over 2000 people from Libby Mt.What pa4rt of mass murder do you not understand.How many people does it take to suffer till death before you see just how deadly the air is in Libby.So what if the deadly mine shut down in 1990.It is what THEY left for you and all to breathe for Generations to come.Long after we are gone.Why do you think most of these liars selling Libby care.They too are on their way out and they will not be around when the next wave of truth comes to Libby and you all are told...the truth as to why you and your entire family are sick and dying from not being told the truth.So criminal to repeat this mass murder of human beings by lies that have and continue to kill thousands...just like you and I.Libby Mt IS a DEATH TOWN.What the hell more do you need to prove this??? Such denial and lies at such a cost and the children will pay this price.YOU need to care as I for the sake of the children.I have wrote enough truth to educate the World about Libby Mt and you know something Kathy, I have...made a difference and I have saved many many lives.What have you done?Stay away from Libby.Libby is not for sale and the children die......so so so sad....but true.
Mike, as I said in my post I don't think I need to go into how misinformed you are. As I reviewed several of your past post on different web site it becomes clear that your a one trick pony. Unwilling to realize that that trick will keep him around, but it gets real old. You can continue to post all you want all of your misinformation, but here in Libby - we are getting cleaned up and developing a better community. Best of luck in the future.
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