Libby Montana

The Montana Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday about whether BNSF Railway can be held liable for exposing Libby residents to asbestos that was in shipments of vermiculite it transported before the local mine shut down in 1990.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) took another step this week toward transferring oversight of the Libby Asbestos Superfund Site to the state. EPA released the first of two plans outlining how the state will mitigate the spread of any remaining contamination in Libby and Troy.

The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks is wrapping up a series of public meetings on Chronic Wasting Disease, or CWD. This week, the agency explained its initial management strategy for the Libby area where six white-tailed deer have tested positive for the fatal disease.

CWD was detected in Libby this spring. It’s the first case of the disease showing up in a wild herd in western Montana.

A second deer in Libby is suspected of carrying Chronic Wasting Disease.

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks announced Friday that it was notified of a sample collected from a white-tailed buck and sent to a lab to be tested.

More than 200 people Wednesday night came to a U.S. State Department-hosted town hall meeting in Kalispell meant to inform federal negotiations that could shape the future of an international watershed roughly the size of Texas.

An intersection west of Kalispell has clocked 50 crashes in the past 11 years. The Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) says a new roundabout could bring that number down. MDT will make its case at an open house this week. 

An administrator with the Environmental Protection Agency who’s been praised by leaders in Butte and Anaconda has been promoted to become a senior advisor to the newly-confirmed head of the EPA.

Doug Benevento has been a frequent visitor to Montana, and helped negotiate final cleanup agreements for Butte and Anaconda. He’ll remain based in Denver, but with a broader portfolio than just the six states he’s overseen since 2017.

Montana has a new Superfund liaison. The partial government shutdown delayed the Environmental Protection Agency from naming a permanent replacement for the acting liaison, but now that it’s over, Jacqui Barker is visiting communities around the state.

A campuswide meeting to discuss the decision to abruptly close a busy University of Montana building for the rest of spring semester was peppered with flashes of anger, anxiety and even moments of empathy Friday.

Montana’s Supreme Court has appointed six more judges to the state’s year-old asbestos claims court.

It’s been nearly 20 years since the Libby asbestos disaster hit national news, but many Montanans affected by it are still fighting for reparations in the courts, with no end in sight.