Keasbey & Mattison / Nicolet: Ambler, PA and the BoRit Superfund

Keasbey & Mattison: America’s Pioneer Asbestos-Cement Manufacturer

Keasbey & Mattison Company was established in Ambler, Pennsylvania in 1881 and began manufacturing asbestos-cement products in that location by 1886—making it one of the earliest and most historically significant asbestos product manufacturers in the United States. At a time when asbestos was celebrated as a “miracle mineral” and asbestos-cement technology was new and commercially promising, Keasbey & Mattison built a manufacturing empire in Ambler that would define the town’s economy and, ultimately, its environmental legacy for more than a century.

The company’s core products were asbestos-cement pipe, roofing shingles, and building materials. Asbestos-cement combined Portland cement with asbestos fibers to create a composite material that was fire-resistant, durable, weather-resistant, and relatively inexpensive to manufacture. These properties made asbestos-cement attractive for a wide variety of building applications—siding, roofing, floor tiles, pressure pipe for water and sewer systems, and decorative building panels. K&M became a leading supplier of these materials to the construction industry and municipal water authorities throughout the eastern United States and beyond.

The manufacturing process for asbestos-cement was inherently dusty. Raw asbestos fiber—imported primarily from Canadian chrysotile mines and South African crocidolite and amosite sources—had to be mixed with cement slurry, formed into the desired shapes, and cured. The mixing, beating, and forming stages released asbestos fibers into the plant air. Workers who spent careers at the Ambler facility accumulated significant lung fiber burdens, and the mortality statistics for K&M workers who were studied in subsequent decades were grim evidence of the occupational health consequences.

The scale of Keasbey & Mattison’s operations in Ambler over its decades of manufacturing generated truly enormous quantities of asbestos-containing waste material. Fiber trimmings, reject products, process sludge, and manufacturing debris accumulated in large piles around the plant and in dedicated disposal areas. Unlike today, there were no regulations requiring contained or lined disposal of this waste; it was simply piled or spread in available open areas. These practices created what would eventually become the BoRit Superfund site—a legacy of contamination that generations of Ambler residents have lived alongside and, in many cases, have been sickened by.

The BoRit Superfund Site: Asbestos Waste and Community Contamination

The BoRit Superfund site in Ambler, Pennsylvania is one of the most significant urban asbestos contamination sites in the United States. The site takes its name from an amalgamation of the names of the primary responsible parties: Borg-Warner Corporation, Riley Consolidated, and Tenneco—the corporate successors and property owners associated with the former Keasbey & Mattison manufacturing complex. The site encompasses several parcels of former industrial land in Ambler where asbestos manufacturing waste was deposited over many decades of K&M operations.

The EPA placed the BoRit site on the National Priorities List (Superfund) because the accumulated asbestos waste posed a continuing public health risk to the surrounding community. Asbestos fibers in the waste piles could become airborne when the material was disturbed by wind, foot traffic, recreational use, or construction. For much of the twentieth century, Ambler residents—including children who played on or near the waste piles, some of which were informally used as recreational areas—were exposed to potentially hazardous levels of airborne asbestos fibers without any warning or protective measures.

Community exposure at BoRit is historically significant because it represents a category of asbestos injury distinct from the occupational exposure most commonly associated with asbestos disease. BoRit community members did not work with asbestos materials; they simply lived in a neighborhood where asbestos waste had been deposited and where fibers could become airborne from those deposits. The exposure doses experienced by community members were generally lower than those received by plant workers, but even low-level asbestos exposure carries some risk of mesothelioma and other asbestos-related cancers over a lifetime.

The EPA cleanup of the BoRit site has involved capping waste piles, revegetating disturbed areas, restricting access, and developing long-term monitoring programs to track asbestos fiber levels in the surrounding environment. Cleanup efforts have reduced ongoing exposure risks for current Ambler residents, but they do not undo the historical exposures that generations of community members received over the decades before cleanup. Former residents who have since moved away from Ambler may also have received meaningful asbestos exposure during their years in the community.

For workers who were employed directly at the K&M Ambler facilities, occupational exposures were far more intense and sustained than the community exposures from the waste piles. Factory workers who breathed asbestos dust on every working day of their careers at the Ambler plant face the highest risk of asbestos-related disease of any group connected to Keasbey & Mattison.

Nicolet Inc.: Corporate Successor and Bankruptcy Without a Trust

After Keasbey & Mattison’s core asbestos-cement operations wound down, the company’s corporate identity and some of its product lines and liabilities were carried forward by successor entities. Nicolet Inc. emerged as one such corporate successor, acquiring or otherwise assuming responsibility for aspects of K&M’s business. Nicolet continued operating in building products markets and, as asbestos litigation intensified through the 1970s and 1980s, inherited a significant portion of the growing wave of asbestos personal injury claims associated with K&M products.

Unlike many asbestos manufacturers that navigated their asbestos liabilities through the Section 524(g) bankruptcy framework—creating funded trusts that continue to pay claims decades after the company’s reorganization—Nicolet’s bankruptcy did not produce a surviving compensation mechanism. When Nicolet filed for bankruptcy and was ultimately dissolved, the process did not generate a funded asbestos trust to which former workers and affected community members could submit claims and receive payment.

This outcome distinguishes the K&M/Nicolet situation from the majority of major asbestos manufacturer bankruptcies. Companies like Johns-Manville, Owens Corning, W.R. Grace, and Pittsburgh Corning all went through bankruptcy processes that resulted in established, funded trusts that continue to pay claims today. Nicolet’s dissolution without a trust means that there is no administrative claims process available for K&M-specific asbestos exposure, making the recovery path for affected individuals significantly more difficult.

The practical consequence for mesothelioma victims with K&M or Nicolet product exposure is that the primary legal avenue—a trust claim—is unavailable. However, this does not mean that all recovery options are foreclosed. Many workers exposed to K&M products were also exposed to asbestos products from other manufacturers who do have surviving trusts or who remain as solvent litigation defendants. A comprehensive occupational history review may identify other compensable exposures that can provide meaningful recovery even in the absence of a K&M-specific trust.

Community vs. Occupational Exposure: Different Pathways, Similar Consequences

The BoRit situation in Ambler illustrates a fundamental distinction in asbestos disease claims: the difference between occupational exposure (inhaling asbestos fibers in the workplace) and community or environmental exposure (inhaling fibers from environmental contamination near an industrial site). Both pathways can cause mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases, but they typically involve different exposure intensities, different legal theories, and different compensation mechanisms.

Occupational exposure at the K&M Ambler plant involved workers who spent eight or more hours per day breathing asbestos-laden air in the manufacturing facility. These workers received the highest cumulative fiber doses of any group associated with the Ambler site. Their legal claims are straightforward asbestos personal injury cases, complicated primarily by the absence of a surviving K&M or Nicolet trust. Former K&M plant workers must look to other exposure sources and defendants to build compensable claims, which is often possible given the prevalence of asbestos in mid-century industrial environments.

Community exposure at and around the BoRit site involved residents of Ambler who breathed fibers that became airborne from the waste piles. Children who played near the waste areas, homeowners whose yards were adjacent to waste deposits, and longtime residents who spent years in the community all received some level of environmental asbestos exposure, though typically at lower intensities than plant workers. Mesothelioma from community asbestos exposure is documented in the medical literature and is legally recognized, but the absence of a solvent corporate defendant with a direct responsibility for Ambler community claims makes recovery challenging.

The intersection of community and occupational exposure is particularly complex for workers who both labored at the Ambler plant and lived in the surrounding community, as well as for family members of plant workers who may have received take-home asbestos exposure when workers brought fibers home on their clothing and equipment. Each of these exposure pathways requires careful analysis by an attorney experienced in asbestos law.

Keasbey & Mattison Product Lines and Production History

Frequently Asked Questions: Keasbey & Mattison, Nicolet & BoRit Claims