In 2005 a proposal to build a 17-story high-rise on six acres in the bedroom community of Ambler, Pennsylvania, touched off a firestorm of controversy among its 6,000 residents. A vocal contingent lambasted the plan, arguing that the height of the tower and number of units would add to traffic congestion, place undue strain on public services, and otherwise tarnish quality of life in the borough. Such a story would be unremarkable in most of small-town America, but in Ambler there is another concern, one mixed into the soil. For three-quarters of a century the town was known as the asbestos-manufacturing capital of the world. At the site of the proposed tower and beneath dense vegetation lay 195,000 cubic yards of dun-colored dreck rising 25 feet above the surrounding ground. The site had for decades been used as a dump for asbestos-containing material. Kane Core, the high-rise's developer, was unable to allay fears that construction would kick up asbestos dust—a potent carcinogen when inhaled—and so abandoned the project by year's end.
展开▼
