Chris Ullery reports for the Bucks Courier-Times
About 10 people again asked supervisors Tuesday to deny plans for Elcon’s liquid hazardous waste treatment facility at an upcoming April 30 meeting.
Residents opposed to a hazardous waste treatment facility in Falls continued pressuring township officials to reject Elcon’s proposal ahead of a planned special supervisors meeting later this month to consider the application.
About 10 people spoke out Tuesday against Elcon Recycling Services’ proposed plant that could process between 150,000 to 200,000 tons of chemicals and pharmaceutical waste a year.
The plans were not an item under consideration for the board this week, but residents and others have been using the public comment at recent meetings to keep Elcon on that forefront of officials’ minds.
Representatives of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and Protect Our Water and Air have urged residents to continue commenting at public meetings leading up to a potential vote on Elcon’s plans at the end of the month.
Supervisors will hold a special meeting and possible vote on Elcon’s plans on April 30 in Pennsbury High School West’s Keller Hall, 608 S. Olds Blvd. beginning at 7 p.m.
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.
The township’s planning commission voted not to recommend the plans be approved by supervisors during Marchmeeting.
The comments at Tuesday’s meeting were similar to past objections to the plant, and the township has posted the meeting video on it’s YouTube channel.
If supervisors vote on the plans, it likely won’t be the end of the issue regardless of the outcome.
Fred Stine, citizen action coordinator with Riverkeeper, and Lise Baxter, co-founder of POWA, said last week Elcon could take the town to court over a denial, but the two organizations might sue the town over an approval.
