Asbestos Dumped on Marco Island

October 30, 2006 - Marco Island, Florida officials were shocked and dismayed to discover that someone had dumped several dozen pieces of asbestos at a site that previously been cleared of a large amount of asbestos materials.

The Naples Daily News reports that the Marco Island police department assigned two detectives and one supervisor to the case after being informed of the problem earlier this week. The police took photographs and other evidence from the 1.1-acre site and noted that most of the asbestos was “found within 20-25 feet of the sidewalk on the site’s primary street access point.”

This past April the city had spent nearly $85,000 to have the same site cleaned so that it was asbestos-free.  The area is the proposed location of the new Veterans Park. 

“The site had been cleaned up, so we can only assume someone put asbestos there,” Marco Island Police Chief Roger Reinke said. “That’s a potential violation of the law and we’re going to try to determine who it is that did it.”

The city has since rehired the same company that completed the original clean-up to clear the site once again.  The supervisor of the abatement company noted that his 13 workers and 2 supervisors combed the site with rakes, picking up pieces as big as 12 inches in diameter as well as several small pieces of asbestos.