Mid-Atlantic Superfund

Contacts

Bulletin Board

• Community Update fact sheet July 2011 (PDF) (6 pp, 661K)
  
• Activity-Based Sampling (ABS) fact sheet July 2011 (PDF) (2 pp, 273K)

Questions

The EPA is dedicated to providing you with timely and accurate information about our work at this site. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact:
Vance Evans
800-553-2509
215-814-5526 or Trish Taylor
215-814-5539

Site Status

• On October 5, 2011 EPA presented to the Community Advisory Group an overview of the recent damage to Site work areas caused by Hurricane Irene/Tropical Storm Lee flooding. EPA is currently working with Whitpain Township and Borough of Ambler officials as well as U.S. Army Corp. of Engineers on plans to repair the damaged areas and to take precautionary measures to help prevent future flooding damage. Photos of the recent damage caused by the storms, and related repair work, are available at EPA On-Scene Coordinator's Website.
  
  
• Activity-based sampling (ABS), the process of collecting air samples from the breathing zone of samplers engaged in realistic representative activities (e.g., raking, mowing, digging, etc.) that may disturb asbestos-contaminated sources, occurred during the summer of 2011.
  
  
• Phase II activities began the week of October 4, 2010 and concluded in mid-November 2010. Activities included community air monitoring, installation of groundwater monitoring wells, and additional on-site and off-site (including residential) soil sampling.
  
  
• The site is divided into three distinct sections of land including: 1) an asbestos waste pile, 25-feet high at some points, on a six-acre plot of land owned by Kane-Core, Inc.; 2) a 15-acre reservoir, owned by Wissahickon Waterfowl Preserve of which the berm is believed to be constructed of asbestos-containing material (ACM); and 3) an 11-acre portion of Whitpain Park owned by Whitpain Township and closed since the 1980s, due to asbestos contamination.
  
  
• The removal work includes the stream banks of three creeks that run near the site. These stream banks include the Park parcel stream bank of the Wissahickon Creek, Rose Valley Creek and Tannery Run Creek.
  Stream bank stabilization has been completed on the Wissahickon and Rose Valley Creeks.
  
  
• The BoRit site was added to the EPA's National Priorities List of most hazardous waste sites on April 9, 2009, making it eligible for further (long-term) cleanup, using federal Superfund program funding. The first step of the long-term cleanup will be a Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study (RI/FS), which is now studying the full nature and extent of contamination, health risks, and the efficacy of potential cleanup options.
  
  
• The Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study (RI/FS) began in November 2009. The first phase of field work, which included surface water, sediment, soil, and waste sampling, was completed in January 2010. Sampling was conducted on all three parcels, including the 3 creeks (Rose Valley, Tannery Run, and Wissahickon Creek) that run on the Site. Various contaminants, in addition to asbestos, were found throughout the Site, and the data will be undergoing further review. No immediate concerns were identified.
  

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Background

• The BoRit asbestos site was used to dispose of asbestos-containing material from the early 1900s to the late 1980s that came from a nearby asbestos-manufacturing plant. The site is divided into three parcels: an asbestos waste pile, a reservoir owned by Wissahickon Waterfowl Prserve and a former park/playground owned by Whitpain Township.
  
  
• The waste pile covers approximately two acres of the six-acre parcel, and is about 20 feet above the ground surface. The berm of the 15-acre reservoir was constructed of asbestos shingles, millboard and soil. Asbestos product waste, such as piping and tiles, is visible surrounding the reservoir and stream banks. The third disposal area, which covers about 11 acres, was a depression that was filled and leveled, and eventually used as a park/playground. In the mid-1980s, the area was fenced due to asbestos contamination.
  
  
• The site is on the National Priorities List for cleanup 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.

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