EPA Adds Former Pennsylvania Asbestos Dump To National Cleanup List

April 16, 2009 8:25 a.m. EST

Washington, DC (AHN) - The Environmental Protection Agency recently added an Ambler, Pa. facility that served as a dump for asbestos-containing materials to its Superfund National Priority list.

The Superfund list includes more than 1,500 sites where the EPA determined cleanup is necessary for the good of the public health.

"The site is on the NPL because the nearby residential population could potentially be exposed to airborne asbestos and to asbestos contamination along Tannery Run, Rose Valley Creek and the Wissahickon Creek," the EPA said in a press release.

According to the EPA, the asbestos pile at the BoRit dump in Pennsylvania covers almost two acres of land and is about 20 feet above ground level. A nearby creek is a popular local fishing spot, Asbestos.com reported.

Exposure to asbestos can cause serious illness, including a type of lung cancer know as mesothelioma. People with mesothelioma can go up to 10 years without being properly diagnosed, and the survival rate for sufferers ins usually less than a year after diagnosis, according to Asbestos.com.

The BoRit site was used as an asbestos dump from the early 1900s to the 1980s, according to the EPA. The site is divided into three parcels: the asbestos waste pile, a reservoir owned by the Wissahickon Waterfowl Preserve and a former playground owned by the Whitpain Township.

The playground area was closed and fenced off in the 1980s.