Contractor charged with Clean Air Act violations in connection with asbestos removal from Phila. church

A Montgomery County contractor was charged this week with violating the

federal Clean Air Act for asbestos-related work.

Anthony Biello, II, 55, formerly of Ambler, Pa., was charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in connection with his alleged failure to notify the City of Philadelphia’s Air Management Services division of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of the removal of asbestos-containing material from a former church in the city’s Spring Garden section.

The nonprofit group that owned the church building, which dates to the mid-19^th century, at the time, Siloam Industries, had hired Biello’s firm, D&E Solutions LLC to remove the hazardous materials from the site before the structure’s planned demolition, according to media reports.

The building, once home to the Church of the Assumption, is located at 1133 Spring Garden Street.

Biello faces a maximum possible sentence of five years in prison if found guilty on the one count of violating the Clean Air Act, according to the office of U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger.

The case was investigated by the Environmental Protection Agency’s Criminal Investigation Division with assistance from the City of Philadelphia’s Air Management Services office.