Asbestos waste is still buried and scattered throughout many of the sites of Ambler's old factories. Uprooted trees, burrowing animals, and flooding of local waterways threaten to bring it to the surface. The EPA has spent decades and more than $25 million trying to keep these threats under control at Ambler's two Superfund sites, primarily by burying the waste, layering it with a synthetic fabric to prevent upward migration, capping it all, and stabilizing the banks of the waterways. The Ambler Asbestos Piles site was removed from the Superfund list in 1996, but because asbestos is still present, the EPA reviews the property every five years. The EPA is scheduled to complete the initial cleanup phase of the Superfund process at the other site, named BoRit, in 2015. Most longtime residents expect that capping the asbestos will become the agency's long-term remedial plan for BoRit, the same approach taken with the Ambler Asbestos Piles.
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