Asbestos has been found among the construction materials dumped onto property located on Sycamore Trail and will have to be cleaned up to avoid the health risks associated with the material.

Mike Rodock, industrial team supervisor for the Northeast District of Georgia Environmental Protection Division, said the investigation into the dumping is still underway. The waste containing asbestos - naturally occurring fibrous minerals that may cause serious lung disease through continued exposure - will be cleaned up according to state regulations he said.

Rodock said he did not believe the asbestos constituted a health hazard for nearby residents in the Riverside Estates mobile park. He said EPD continues to work with the property owner and the recycling companies that dumped the materials to ascertain who is responsible for its cleanup.

"Solid waste laws always hold the property owners responsible. So under that basis the property owner's involved," Rodock said.

EPD was first alerted to the presence of the materials in mid-May.

A representative of Allied Recycling of Conyers, who declined to give his name, said his company did dump concrete materials on the property, located not far from the Yellow River, at the request of the landowner Don Rogers. The representative denied that any of the asbestos containing waste came from his company.

"We've been in business for 20 years and we've never done anything illegal," he said, adding that Allied Recycling had written permission from the property owners to dump the concrete material on Sycamore Trail.

The representative said the asbestos must have come from one of the other recycling companies found to be dumping on the site. He said his company was contacted to provide "clean fill" concrete materials by Rogers, who reportedly wanted a more level land grade.

"He did approach us as far as the clean fill. There were other companies going in there as well. So it's one of those things of pointing the finger at the right people."