Residents of Ambler, Whitpain and Upper Dublin Townships, all suburbs of Philadelphia, will soon hear the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) final removal action plan for the 32-acre BoRit asbestos site. Some speculate that the site may wind up on the agency’s National Priorities List, reserved for the most seriously environmentally-contaminated sites in the nation.

According to an article in The Reporter, EPA Community Involvement Coordinator Larry Johnson has already received in excess of 300 emails from area residents who are concerned with exposed asbestos, erosion of stream banks and site monitoring.

“We hear those concerns,” he said, adding, removal action is being designed around those issues. “We’re going to address them.” He notes that the report is not yet complete but that he hopes to present the cleanup plan to area residents by early to mid March.

The public meeting has been delayed because health agencies requested the opportunity to simultaneously present an environmental review they are still working on, according to Johnson. Health experts plan to be present at the meeting to answer questions about the possible health effects of asbestos exposure.

The BoRit asbestos site, as it has become known, is a result of waste disposal operations by the former Keasby and Mattison Company, Certainteed Corporation, and Nicolet Industries. All of the aforementioned companies manufactured asbestos products at the location for decades, including items such as paper, piping, brake linings, millboard, roofing shingles, asbestos cement pipe, and more. Manufacturing of asbestos products at that site began in 1897 and finally ended in the late 1980s.

The article notes that while EPA officials are preparing removal action for sometime this spring, BoRit is also going through the Site Assessment Program that evaluates individual sites, establishing the best of five main options to address their needs.

EPA Regional Site Assessment Manager Charlene Creamer explained the process that determines whether or not BoRit will be proposed to the National Priorities List, (NPL) for which the BoRit Community Advisory Group (CAG) members have expressed a desire. The CAG was formed specifically to address concerns about the site and they have been instrumental in garnering the attention of the EPA.

The NPL is a listing of sites where hazardous conditions or contamination exists, requiring extensive evaluation or remediation. A listing on the NPL is a last resort reserved for the “worst type of sites,” where there is no alternative remediation, Creamer said.

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