New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (DES) on Asbestos

Questions Answered by the New Hampshire DES Regarding Asbestos Proper management of Solid Waste and the related facilities is one of New Hampshire's primary health and environmental priorities. The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (DES) is the State agency responsible for overseeing the management of solid waste.

Oversight of the program is provided through the DES Solid Waste Management Bureau, which manages the responsibility through a combination of permitting, training, public education and outreach, and compliance programs.

In New Hampshire, where were asbestos products made? In New Hampshire, asbestos-containing products were manufactured for many years in Nashua, Meredith, and Tilton. In Meredith, the Keasbey & Mattison company operated an asbestos plant from the 1930's until 1962 when the plant was purchased by Amatex. Amatex continued to make asbestos products at the plant until late 1982.

In Tilton, the Quinn-T manufacturing facility produced asbestos paper products for many years. In Nashua, from approximately 1900 until 1985, asbestos-containing building materials were produced at a plant on Bridge Street, owned and operated by the Johns-Manville Corporation.

Where did New Hampshire asbestos manufacturers dump their waste? Asbestos-containing waste from the Nashua plant was delivered for free to area property owners for use as fill. As a result, many residential, commercial, industrial, and public properties in the city of Nashua and the nearby town of Hudson are filled with asbestos waste.

At the Tilton plant site, the company landfilled asbestos waste in two separate areas on the property. Those areas are no longer in use and are capped with soil materials. In Meredith, asbestos waste was disposed of at the town landfill, which is now closed and capped. The existence of other dump sites in Tilton and Meredith, if any, is not known. What does the asbestos waste look like at the Nashua/Hudson sites? The asbestos waste dumped in Nashua and Hudson is in a variety of forms, including: pellets; spheres; whole sheets (4' x 8') and scraps/fragments of sheets resembling "cement board"; rolled sheets; dewatered sludge; and waste from dust collection systems, referred to as "baghouse" waste.

It may be gray, white, black, green, or reddish in color. After being in the soil for many years, it has a tendency to blend with its surrounding and can be hard to distinguish from clean soil. This is most often the case with "baghouse" waste, which is a fine, dust-like material.