High Court Won't Consider Asbestos Case (W. R. Grace mine MT)

[jpak]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/bw-scotus/2006/oct/10/101000001.html

WASHINGTON (AP) - W.R. Grace & Co. lost its bid to the Supreme Court Tuesday to get out from under a $54 million bill to clean up asbestos in the Montana mining town of Libby.

Justices rejected without comment Grace's appeal of lower court rulings that said the company was responsible for the entire cost of removing asbestos-contaminated soil in Libby.

The case pits Grace, which operated a vermiculite mine in Libby for 27 years, against the Environmental Protection Agency, which oversees the federal Superfund program for the nation's worst hazardous waste sites.

Grace argued in court papers that EPA had no authority to hand the company the entire bill, as well as responsibility for future costs, for the cleanup. The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals and a federal district judge sided with EPA, which sued Grace in 2001 to recover cleanup costs.

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[Dora]

1. IIRC, W.R. Grace has left quite a wake of toxins in its path.

Wasn't it Grace that was sued in the book/movie, "A Civil Action?"