The planning commission voted against recommending the Elcon Recycling Services proposed hazardous waste treatment facility at the site of a former U.S. Steel operation.

Chris Ullery reports for the Burlington County Times 

The Falls planning commission voted not to recommend plans for the controversial application from Elcon Recycling Services on Tuesday night amid cheers from a crowd of 80 people and after a word of warning from an attorney representing the company.

The 4-0 vote, with commission member Mary Leszczuk absent, came shortly after several public comments urging the panel to reject the plan and recommend the supervisors deny Elcon’s plant to process between 150,00 to 210,000 tons of chemicals and pharmaceutical waste each year.

Kim Freimuth, of Fox Rothschild, represented Elcon at the meeting and said early in the hearing the company was not seeking a vote from the commission Tuesday, and just prior to the vote it could have legal consequences. The panel voted anyway.

Freimuth said during the meeting the company was in the process of amending the application to address concerns and land development issues raised by the township’s staff and fire marshal

.A request to continue the meeting was not granted and Freimuth said the company was willing to come to a future meeting to address questions raised Tuesday that went beyond the scope of land development.

“We’re here to determine whether its appropriate for the zoning district and the planning commission, the legal stuff is up to the lawyers,” Commission Chairman Brian Binney said after the meeting.

“We determined that we didn’t feel it was appropriate for where they were proposing to put it.”

The company aims to build the facility on a 23-acre site in the Keystone Industrial Port Complex, an approximately 3,000-acre industrial park encompassing the former footprint of U.S. Steel’s Fairless Works operation not far from the Delaware River.

Elcon representatives say its facility would be state of the art and create up to 120 short-term construction jobs and about 50 full-time operations jobs. The company has said the plant would produce little pollution and adhere to all environmental regulations. Opponents, primarily made up of local residents and backed by local environmental groups, are skeptical.

Over the past several years, the proposal has ping-ponged, as Elcon submitted proposal materials and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection temporarily rejected them for deficiencies. But the latest version, submitted last July, cleared an initial bar, putting DEP on track to issue an intent to approve or deny in May.

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