Vermont has a first class asbestos carcass on its hands in the form of the three former asbestos mines on Belvidere Mountain near Lowell, VT. The site is over 2,500 acres when former mine real estate is combined with the piles of discarded rubble, collecting ponds and infrastructure surrounding the site. The instances of asbestos workplace exposure at the mines haven’t been thoroughly documented, but the scale of the health threat posed by the wrecked real estate on the mine site has drawn the attention of the federal government.
According to an EPA report: “The tailings pile associated with the Eden Quarry is being heavily eroded by the beginnings of Hutchins Brook which is carrying substantial quantities of mine tailings into the Lamoille watershed. A wetland, approximately 25-acres in size, located approximately one mile down-gradient of this waste pile has been heavily affected by the tailings. The wetland area appears to be reaching its storage capacity and is threatening to adversely affect adjacent water bodies.
“The Lowell Quarry, now filled in with water, created the larger of the waste piles, which has been estimated between 30 and 60 million tons covering 80 acres. This pile has also been eroding and has impacted the southern end of Corez Pond, Burgess Brook and associated wetlands within the Mississquoi watershed.”
The Vermont Asbestos Group
The site was purchased in 1975 by a local organization of workers and investors known as the Vermont Asbestos Group. The facilities ceased operating in 1990 and since that time, the Vermont Asbestos Group has faced ongoing involvement with federal health and environmental agencies as well as federal and state courts.
Recently the Vermont Supreme Court ruled that a landowner can sue the president of the Vermont Asbestos Group over contamination on property next to the former asbestos mine in Eden and Lowell. The Supreme Court has overruled a lower court’s decision, saying there are some actions in which both corporation and corporate officers can be held liable. In this instance, a landowner subject to asbestos exposure from an adjacent property has succeeded in holding management responsible.
Asbestos Group President Sued
Leonard Prive had sued president Howard Manosh for asbestos contamination of his soil, ponds and wetlands, which the state said was likely caused by a large pile of waste rock at the mine, which closed in 1993. Prive claimed in his suit that Manosh was personally liable because he allegedly directed where the waste rock pile should be placed and how it would be contained.
The state’s Department of Health conducted a study some years ago that showed higher than normal occurrences of asbestos lung cancer and mesothelioma. The methodology used to gather that data has since been called into question, as will every other salient fact about the site now that company management has been successfully threatened by legal action.
