After digging up approximately 95 tons of asbestos contaminated soil over the last three weeks, laying down a special cloth, and covering the area with at least six inches of uncontaminated soil, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has completed the clean up of the half-acre site beside the Nashua River and the city library. Asbestos contaminated soil has been found at various sites throughout Nashua and Hudson, New Hampshire because the Johns Manville plant that operated in the area for decades gave away asbestos waste as construction fill, which ended up under buildings, roads, parks and parking lots all over the area. Investigators discovered that erosion and mowing created a risk that asbestos fibers were being released and could be inhaled. Inhaling asbestos fibers can cause mesothelioma and other serious diseases. Because of the risk that asbestos was being released, the EPA began cleanup projects wherever asbestos had been discovered in the area.
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