Mining, People and the Environment > Enviromine > Grace acquitted of asbestos charges

Enviromine

Chemicals company WR Grace & Co and three of its executives have been cleared of all criminal charges by a federal jury in the US, in what has been called one of the most significant criminal environmental cases in the country’s history.

The company was acquitted of charges that it knowingly exposed employees and the residents of the town of Libby, Montana to asbestos from its Libby vermiculite mine.

Federal prosecutors from the Department of Justice had accused Grace and its executives of exposing Libby’s 100,000 residents to asbestos for almost 30 years, resulting in more than 200 deaths and 1,000 illnesses.

Prosecutors also said this was the first case in the US where the health of so many people had been impacted by an environmental crime.

At its peak, the Libby mine produced 80% of the world’s vermiculite, which was distributed to some 300 processing plants in the US.

“We at Grace are gratified by today’s verdict and thank the men and women of the jury who were open to hearing the facts,” chief executive Fred Festa said on receiving the news of the ruling.

“We always believed that Grace and its former executives had acted properly and that a jury would come to the same conclusion.”

Mr Festa added that during the operation of the Libby mine between 1963 and 1990, the company had worked hard to keep the operation in compliance with the laws and standards of the day.

But, last year the Environmental Protection Agency won a record US$250 million settlement against the company to reimburse the government for clean-up costs relating to asbestos contamination from the Libby mine.