Bristol Twp. Zoning Board Tables Incinerator Application

They came from across the river, Washington DC, Bensalem ,  Burlington, N.J. and all points in between. The crowd gathered at the Bristol Township building on Bath Road for Monday’s standing room only marathon-like Zoning Board meeting.

Ultimately, the concerns of citizens and a need for more information led to the board deciding to table a decision until the next month’s meeting, said Zoning Board Chairman Chuck Clayton.

The hearing lasting close to five hours had its moments of drama, as supporters from both sides of the issue listened intently to the testimony, took notes, snapped pictures, and asked questions aloud often challenging the testimony being given by witnesses for Route 13 Bridge Partners LP of King of Prussia, Montgomery County.

Officials and representatives for the applicant said the roughly 53,000-square-foot plant would be comprised of  offices and two incinerators that would burn 60 tons of garbage daily. The refuse would be  alcohol, cleaners, paints, medicines, aerosols, pesticides and adhesives.

“These are all organic materials, hydrocarbon (and water) based,” said Mike Logan, owner of Compliance Plus in Hatboro, who testified about the chemical portion of the plan. “No medical waste, radioactive materials or explosives would be” incinerated, he said.

Logan said nitrous and sulfur dioxides would be emitted during the burning process but at lower levels in comparison to other businesses in the area.

Logan, addressed by a woman in the audience, was asked: “Don’t you care about the smell?” Logan said odor levels would be “relatively small.”

Officials from both sides of the river sat in attendance testimony was given, conferring with each other and sharing information as as they viewed the power point presentation given by the applicant.

Drama ensued when  when attorney Louis Capelli Jr., special counsel for Burlington City, requested the hearing be stopped due to a “conflict of interest.” Capelli said the  same engineer was representing both the applicant and Burlington City, increasing the tension in the room that existed long before the meeting even started.

“That we always let the applicant speak first,” Clayton bellowed at the Burlington special counsel.

Company officials said the environment and wildlife would be safe saying a number of  steps are planned in order to safe guard the area such as 24/7  staff, an automatic shut-down mechanism, intensive  record keeping and ongoing reporting to local, state, and federal officials.

The company is requesting variances to operate two kilns, which are not permitted, according to Bristol Township’s zoning ordinance.  The company is also challenging the validity of the zoning ordinance, stating in the application it  “unconstitutionally excludes a legitimate use, that being an industrial waste burner.”

Don Mobley who hired Founder and Director of the Energy Justice Network Mike Ewall to testify at the hearing testified during the meeting. He said, “we don’t need this type of business here. We just put in an entire waterfront from Bristol Borough to Bensalem and Philadelphia, here. Why are we going backwards?” “Do we need more smoke stack industry here?”

Answering his own question, Mobley said “no, we don’t. What we need to do is use our land resources better. The Roman Haas plant on River Road is already a super fund site. We create jobs and bring in money for the township without risking people or the environment.”

Frank Farry, who is serving as a private paid consultant for the application process and is the Fire Chief of the Langhorne-;Middletown Fire Company with years of experience related to public safety, said: “The biggest perceived threat would be the materials coming in, but there are a lot of checks and balances.”

Farry later said he was “confident”  the company was going to do all it could to provide safeguards for the township and its residents offered that he would not be testifying on behalf of the applicant in front of governmental agencies’. 0

Farry later said the applicant  doesn’t  stay in business by hurting the areas they do business in and with, they do so by doing all they can to protect them.

Clayton, as it approached 11 p.m., said it was the board’s decision to table the application “because I want to gather more information from surrounding governmental officials and the public.

“It’s the fair thing to do”, he said.

He expects that the application will be on the agenda for the next zoning board meeting in February.