"BILLINGS, Mont. — State regulators are taking over maintenance of a decades-long environmental cleanup in two northwestern Montana towns where lung-damaging asbestos contamination has been blamed in hundreds of deaths.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday transferred responsibility for protecting the towns of Libby and Troy from further contamination to the Montana Department of Environmental Quality.

Asbestos from a vermiculite mine owned by W.R. Grace polluted the area until the mine was shuttered in 1990. Cleanup work began in 2000, after media reports spurred federal officials to investigate widespread health problems among area residents."

Matthew Brown reports for the Associated Press July 1, 2020. [2]