Melody, who served as EMA, outlines asbestos and mine-material testing plan after flood

Melody, who said she served as EMA at the time, told county officials the flood could have released mine-related materials onto private properties, roadways and creek banks and that the county is working with the state Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and FEMA to make sure proper testing and mitigation practices are used. “I don't have a huge amount to update, but I just want to make sure we had a conversation here,” Melody said at the start of her report.

The official said teams are coordinating now and plan to return in the spring, when access to many sites should be possible, to perform initial inspections of creek banks and other locations where rip-rap and bank protection were lost. “We're going to be coming in probably in the spring once we can get access to a lot of these places … and doing initial inspections of creek banks where there has been work done in the past where we might have lost a lot of rip wrap,” Melody said.

Why it matters: flood-driven erosion can expose legacy mine wastes or vermiculite-bearing soils in areas of historical industrial activity, posing potential risks for household and recreational exposure. County officials emphasized testing, controlled mitigation and coordination with state and federal recovery processes rather than immediate large-scale removal until sites are assessed.

Officials identified a stretch of Libby Creek where previously installed rip-rap has been washed out and said that location will be a priority for inspection and repair planning. Board members and Melody also discussed a failing levee near the port that has been undermined and is providing a direct route for high water; they said the levee failure could worsen road and field erosion and will require engineering review before spring runoff.

Speakers noted damage to a pocket park and a walking path where benches were piled with debris to bench height and where much of the path had been exposed to wash-out. Melody said FEMA recovery teams were on site but that county priorities are those damages that most directly affect residents, such as closed roads and bridges that have altered access for roughly 30 to 40 residents on one road that now requires a long detour.

Melody and others also pushed back on a recent Beacon article that they said overstated the extent of exposed “toxic waste.” Melody said state and DEQ personnel had been present and monitoring, and that at least one monitored creek (Rainy Creek) showed no problems at the time the officials discussed. “My site has been okay the whole time,” one participant said about upstream monitoring.

Officials flagged additional concerns about private properties where high wind events uprooted many trees; uprooted stumps and disturbed soils could expose vermiculite or other materials and may require individual property-level assessment. The county advised property owners to use existing ARP/U-dig reporting processes for individual cleanups and said staff would help coordinate access with FEMA where appropriate.

Next steps: county staff said they will coordinate with DEQ and FEMA now and return in spring for inspections when access is better, prioritize the damaged Libby Creek bank and the undermined levee for engineering review, and route individual private-property requests through established clean-up referral channels.