Opponents Of Proposed Hazardous Waste Treatment Facility Work On Battle Plan

Residents from Pennsylvania and New Jersey who are concerned about a proposed hazardous waste treatment facility planned for Falls Township are forming their battle plan.

About 35 residents met Tuesday evening inside the Bucks County Free Library’s Levittown branch in Bristol Township to talk about Elcon’s plans for the facility and how they could voice their concern about the project.

The majority of the people in attendance opposed the Elcon facility at 22-acre site at 100 Dean Sievers Place in the Keystone Industrial Port Complex.

The meeting included representatives from New Jersey river towns, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania and grass-roots group Protect Our Water and Air.

“This is just the scariest thing I’ve ever heard of,” Betty Tatum, a Bucks County resident, said. She was at the meeting not only as a concerned grandmother but as a representative from the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania.

Meeting organizers told the crowd they needed to write letters to local elected officials, talk to neighbors, learn as much as they can about the plans and attend an informational meeting that will be held by Elcon next month. Concerned locals were also encouraged to attend the Falls Board of Supervisors’ meetings and to speak out.

Fred Stine of Bristol Borough-based Delaware Riverkeeper Network said now was the time for those opposed to the facility to get together and come up with arguments against the Elcon facility. He said they would need experts and those well-versed with health data to investigate the possible health threats that could come with the facility or if the waste leaked the roughly half-mile path to the Delaware River.

Stine said residents need to back up their arguments with science and data. He told Tuesday’s crowd that people going up and saying the plan “stinks and I don’t want it here” will have little impact as the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection reviews the proposed facility plans.

One of the strongest pieces of evidence Elcon opponents have is a simulation run by the Philadelphia Water Department. The simulation shows that a leak of hazardous waste into the Delaware River could cause dangerous health impacts for the 1.7 million people that use city water, including Bucks County communities.

Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, said the proposed facility will “threaten the water supply for Philadelphia, Burlington and Camden counties.”

“Do we need a catastrophe or are we going to fight against it?” Tatum asked. “It’s up to the people.”

Opponents to the plan, like Lise Baxter of Yardley, raised concerns over the transport of the hazardous waste. Elcon officials have previously estimated that about 20 truckloads per day could come to  the facility. They added that rail cars could also be used to bring waste water to be treated at their proposed facility.

Stine and Baxter also raised the issue of flooding at the Elcon site. The site is outside the 100-year floodplain, but Stine noted that the storm of record happened in 1955 and development along the river has drastically increased. He added that the Delaware Riverkeeper Network has commissioned a study to look at the impacts if a storm similar to the storm of record struck this year.

“We should be screaming this is another Flint, Michigan,” one man Tuesday night said. While the cause of the Flint water crisis is different, fears from area residents are similar to what is happening in the Michigan town that is dealing with contaminated water.

Lisa Tordo of Protect Our Water and Air recalled the 2014 Elk River spill in Charleston, West Virginia. She spoke of  how methylcyclohexanemethanol was spilled into the main waterway that flows through West Virginia’s capital city, causing major problems and possible health issues.

A Florence Township, New Jersey official who attended Tuesday’s meeting said the lack of protest from local elected leaders was not a good sign. He noted many officials banded together when a waste incinerator was planned for a location near the river in Bristol Township in 2014.

Bordentown Township, New Jersey Mayor Jill Popko told LevittownNow.com after the meeting that she was very concerned about the impact the facility could have on her riverfront community. Her main concern was how a spill could impact the water supply.

After a first failed attempt to build a facility in Falls Township, Elcon revised their plans and scrapped a pipeline that would dump treated waste water into the Delaware River. Their current plan would see the treated waste water evaporated after being placed into large pools outside.

At a meeting with Elcon officials last year, many members of the public said they appreciated the changes but still did not feel comfortable with the plan to build the facility.

The state has already approved a preliminary Phase I application for the site for Elcon and the company is expected to soon submitted the more-involved Phase II application.

Dr. Rengarajan Ramesh, a consultant for Elcon, has called the proposed facility “clean, green, and sustainable.” He also heralded the jobs the facility could bring and the fact Elcon had made changes to their plan.

Elon is an Israeli company that operates a handful of treatment facilities around the globe.

The next DEP-required public meeting will be hosted by Elcon February 23 at the Sheraton Bucks County Hotel on Oxford Valley Road in Falls.