Elcon Moving Forward With Hazardous Waste Treatment Facility Development Plans

It’s been months since there’s been any public movement, but Elcon Recycling has announced a plan to submit Phase II for their long-proposed a hazardous waste treatment facility at the Keystone Industrial Port Complex in Falls Township.

According to copies of a public notice printed in Monday’s Bucks County Courier Times that were provided to LevittownNow.com by readers, Elcon states the plan to submit to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) the first and second phase of their proposal for their treatment facility at 100 Dean Sievers Place “on or about” February 21.

Here’s how Elcon explains their plan in their notice:

Elcon will use environmentally sustainable technology that is more eco-friendly than other liquid waste treatment technologies on the market today because zero liquid waste is discharged by the process and significantly lower solid waste is generated. The organic waste is transformed into energy that is sustainably used in the process. Elcon’s technology is not an incinerator, and it will not use solid or liquid waste incineration. Volatile organic compounds and hazardous air pollutant emissions will be controlled through a thermal oxidizer to meet the federal EPA and Pennsylvania’s air regulations. This technology is commonly used throughout Pennsylvania and the country because of its effectiveness and reliability.

Dr. Rengarajan Ramesh, a consultant for Elcon, said last summer that the proposed facility that could be built slightly more than a mile from the Delaware River is “clean, green and sustainable.” He also heralded the jobs the facility could bring and the fact that Elcon had made changes to their plan.

After a first failed attempt to build a facility in Falls, 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 an indoor closed-loop system. The left over distilled water would be reused to cool equipment at the facility.

At an information session last year, Elcon officials told resident all development of the proposed facility will occur outside wetlands and the flood of record. The facility is proposed for  22 developed acres of a larger 33 acre property.

Despite Elcon’s reassurances the facility would be safe, residents and environmental groups in Pennsylvania and New Jersey have raised objections to the facility. They have noted the distance of the plant to the river and the unprocessed waste being transported locally to the facility.

Residents concerned about the Elcon facility have staked signs in their yards and held various outreach sessions for their neighbors. In nearly every town in Lower Bucks County, opponents to the plan have stepped before the governing bodies and spoke against Elcon.

Last year, Bristol Borough, Middletown, Morrisville, Newtown Township, Tullytown, Upper Makefield and Yardley passed resolution opposing the proposed Elcon facility. Bucks County officials said they trusted the DEP process, and the Falls Board of Supervisors said they would not consider any resolutions until the DEP vetting process was finished.

Elcon officials have said in the past that they are listening to residents’ concerns and are working to accommodate concerns.

The Phase II review process will take just under a year and will include public review of Elcon’s proposal. The Phase II submission will be avaialbe on the DEP website later this month and at the Levittown Library and the library in Westampton, New Jersey.