Clapper, Patti, Schweizer and Mason

Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter has asked the EPA to complete better removal and/or destruction of asbestos at the BoRit site in Ambler, Pennsylvania. The location was used from the early 1900’s until the 1980’s as a dump site for asbestos containing waste from a nearby manufacturing plant. In the mid-1980’s the area was fenced off due to dangerous levels of asbestos contamination.

 

Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral that is known to cause serious illness such as mesothelioma, asbestosis, and lung cancer.  The EPA began designating sites that contained large amounts of asbestos as Superfund sites, providing funds to help contain and clean up contamination and protect the public. 

 

The EPA originally completed a clean up in Ambler at a 25 acre designated Superfund site in 1993. The cleanup remedy implemented was to construct caps over the contaminated areas and control erosion. It was determined that such measures minimized human health threats and potential impacts to the environment.  

 

The Ambler Asbestos Piles site is divided into three parcels: an asbestos waste pile, a reservoir and a former park. Commercial and residential sites surround the area and more than 6,000 people live within half a mile of the site. In April of this year, the EPA added the BoRit Asbestos Site to the Superfund National Priorities List (NPL).

 

The national priorities list details sites where hazardous contaminants could create a threat to public health or to the environment. The Senator relayed concerns and fears by near by residents that the capping methods originally used may not be an effective method for maximum and permanent protection of health and environment and calls for the EPA to consider removal, destruction and/or recycling of the asbestos waste at the site.   

 

Residents are concerned that weather and time have created possibilities of asbestos becoming airborne and migrating off-site and are asking for further clean up measures to be taken to ensure safety.