UM Grace Case

  The testimony of former Grace employee Robert Locke continued Monday afternoon with Locke concluding the animal tests were a concern to him as they “contained adverse developments compared with other studies.”

“I believe there should have been a conversation with Dr. Smith on these concerns.  I do not believe that I am misreading anything,” Locke said.

Locke’s also admitted that restructuring Libby processing plants to comply with new OSHA standards in the 1970s “would have put us out of business.”

A letter Locke wrote to Grace executives showed that Locke had tried to share his concern about the problems associated with the new guideline, which only allowed 0.1 asbestos fiber per milliliter of tested air.

According to Locke’s testimony, there was “no way we (Grace) could comply” with the standard.

Much of Locke’s testimony after lunch recess was spent reviewing and analyzing a slew of government documents, eliciting many quick objections from the defense.

U.S. attorney Kris McLean led the questioning, and repeatedly had to rephrase questions on the grounds that he was leading the witness and speculating.

Government exhibit 57 B was a document from Locke’s personal papers that showed a type of decision tree for dealing with Libby.  The heading instructed Grace officials to stop using Libby products.  One branch contained details on extracting tremolite out of Libby material.

“To try and do more technical process changes up at Libby in order to reject more tremolite out of materials,” said Locke when questioned on why Libby was in the document.

The document showed Locke wondering if it would be cost effective to run the plant at reduced levels, and also had instructions for obtaining vermiculite from places other than Libby.  It indicated overtures were being made to begin looking for places outside of the U.S. where asbestos was not regulated, like Canada and Mexico.

Other Grace letters looked at Monday were similar in nature, focusing on the implications that would come when test results were revealed.  A major concern of the company was the “increase in capital” that would come with changing plant processes, Locke said.

A theme of the prosecution this afternoon seemed to be proving that, regardless of what department certain Grace executives controlled, all the executives had a general idea of the concerns about tremolite-tainted vermiculite.

McLean repeatedly asked Locke who was present at the meetings associated with government documents, with Jack Wolter, Mario Favorito and Henry Eschenbach’s names coming up numerous times.

Fiber committee meetings were discussed, where new information and any progress with respect to various tremolite issues was shared, according to Locke.  Wolter was the man who dealt with the most troubling issues, Locke said.

“If there was a de facto person who kept the train on the track, it was Jack,” Locke said.

Another document admitted as evidence was a “laundry list of everything” Locke had been involved in regarding “tremolite fiber.”  It was a memorandum to Fred Eaton, a process engineer, and Locke’s boss, and was subsequently copied and sent to executives including Favorito and Wolter.

The prosecution also showed examples of situations where Grace was planning for future problems associated with Libby and keeping an eye on new government regulations.

Government exhibit 80 was background information about Libby employees: Where they worked before, if they were a miner, if family members had died of cancer, if they were a smoker, and other basic background information about Grace workers.

Locke also talked about the advantages of good relationships with government agencies.

Grace was interested in knowing “how close they were to publishing new laws,” Locke said.

During Locke’s testimony, Molloy looked at the jury and abruptly called recess.  Another juror, it seemed, had taken ill.

–Josh Benham (4:20 P.M.)