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Environmental regulators are working to stabilize stream banks near an asbestos disposal site in Ambler, Pennsylvania, to prevent asbestos-containing materials from posing a health risk to the community.

The ongoing activity is occurring along Wissahickon Creek, Rose Valley Creek and Tannery Run near a 32-acre site used for decades to dispose of asbestos-containing material from a nearby asbestos manufacturing plant.

Federal environmental regulators recently put the BoRit site, as it is called, on the list of polluted lands eligible for cleanup under the federal Superfund program. The BoRit site includes an asbestos waste pile owned by Kane-Core, Inc.; a reservoir owned by the Wissahickon Waterfowl Preserve and a former playground owned by Whitpain Township.

EPA investigators say there is no evidence from testing that people are currently being exposed to asbestos. But it’s a densely populated area near Philadelphia, and residents could potentially be exposed to airborne asbestos if it is left uncontrolled. Investigators say that people may have been exposed to inhaling asbestos fibers when the asbestos manufacturing plant was still in operation. Asbestos manufacturing occurred near the site from the 1930s through the late 1980s. When inhaled, asbestos fibers can lodge in the lung and cause serious respiratory disease such as mesothelioma, lung cancer and asbestosis.

Health investigators with the Pennsylvania Department of Health and federal Centers for Disease Control did a study of cancer incidence in communities near the BoRit site. They found an elevated rate of mesothelioma, a rare cancer closely linked to asbestos exposure, in three zip codes closest to the BoRit site when compared to the rest of Pennsylvania. But they said the difference was not statistically significant.

Investigators said the cases of mesothelioma were most likely caused by exposures that occurred in the past when asbestos facilities were operating and exposing workers and their families. According to federal mortality statistics, Pennsylvania ranked 16th in the nation in mesothelioma deaths. Five Pennsylvania counties with the highest number of mesothelioma deaths included Montgomery County, where the BoRit site is located, adjoining Philadelphia and Chester counties, and York and Northhampton counties.

From the early 1900s to the late 1980s, the BoRit area was used to dispose of asbestos waste form the former Keasby and Mattison Company, Certainteed Corporation and Nicolet Industries, state and federal investigators say. The industries produced asbestos products ranging from electrical insulation to brake lining as well as piping, roofing shingles and laboratory tabletops

The waste pile, which contains an estimated 149,500 cubic yards, covers about six acres. The berm of the 15-acre reservoir was constructed of asbestos shingles and millboard. Other asbestos waste such as piping and tiles is visible around the reservoir and three other water bodies.

Workers are removing asbestos containing materials from the stream bank and installing concrete cable mats to prevent erosion from exposing more material.

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