Senator Arlen Specter, D-Pa., has asked the Environmental Protection Agency to consider recycling, removing, or destroying asbestos at a Superfund site contaminated with the deadly substance. The massive site spans parts of Ambler, Upper Dublin, and Whitpain townships in Pennsylvania. Specter sent a letter to the EPA with his request, and referenced a petition signed by over 2,000 Pennsylvanians requesting that the EPA consider alternative options for the site.

Currently, the EPA appears to be planning to simply cap the asbestos-contaminated area. “Capping” is considered to be a cost-effective way to manage asbestos-contaminated soil, and involves covering the toxic earth with a non-contaminated material, such as fresh, clean soil and vegetation. This is most often done in landfills that have sections specifically for asbestos waste.

Asbestos exposure can cause lung cancer, mesothelioma, and other medical conditions in some people.

The BoRit site, as it is more commonly known, was added to the EPA’s Superfund list in April of this year. In Specter’s letter to Acting Associate Administrator Joyce Frank of the EPA’s Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations, he wrote, “It is my understanding that EPA is in the process of shipping dirt to the BoRit site,” he wrote. “My constituents are understandably concerned that this dirt will be used to cap the site and have advised me that previous capping attempts have not been successful.”

Specter went on to ask the EPA “to give strong consideration to removal, destruction and/or recycling of this waste…It is absolutely necessary that all citizens in the communities surrounding the BoRit site are assured that EPA implements a remediation that provides maximum and permanent protection of their health and environment.”

The petition mentioned in Specter’s letter was organized by Citizens for a Better Ambler (CBA). According to CBA member Judy Baigis, getting the signatures took a lot of work. “You have to do a lot of petitioning on many levels to get anyone’s attention,” Baigis said. “The letters have to keep going out to the top people. We have inched our way up, rung by rung by rung.” Baigis went on to explain why the site needs attention so desperately. “The site has been ignored for three decades now,” she said. “This is something so big and beyond regular council members and even the borough management. It’s a project all its own.”

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