Burlington Co. towns oppose plans for waste treatment center

Three municipalities in northern Burlington County and a Delaware River watchdog group are protesting a proposed hazardous waste treatment center along the river in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is considering a request by Elcon Recycling Services LLC of Princeton for a site permit.

The agency has extended the deadline for public comment on the permit until Friday.

Florence, Bordentown city and township and the Delaware Riverkeepers oppose the application because of concerns over potential pollution from waste water, storm water discharge and air emissions.

This is the second industrial waste facility to be proposed along the Pennsylvania riverbanks in 2014. Opposition from Burlington County and local government officials in other municipalities helped quash an incinerator plan in Bristol Township.

Elcon proposes a commercial hazardous waste facility in the Keystone Industrial Port Complex in Falls Township to treat liquid waste from the chemical and pharmaceutical industry in a thermal heating unit. The site is vacant, but once housed the U.S. Steel plant at Fairless Hills.

Bordentown City Mayor Joseph Malone III said he and others are against the plan for one reason — risk to the environment.

"Some people would not care if the world ends if they could make a few bucks out of it," he said of Elcon.

He also described himself as "totally skeptical" of the DEP in Pennsylvania.

"They have a long history of not caring what happens to people in New Jersey."

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has taken no position on the application, according to agency spokesman Bob Considine.

DEP Southeast Regional Director Cosmo Servidio said criteria are in place to prohibit the location of hazardous waste treatment facilities based on their proximity to area water supplies, wetlands and flood hazard areas.

If the state rejects the permit, the plant cannot be built there.

Delaware Riverkeeper Network Citizen Action Coordinator Fred Stine is worried about air emissions drifting into New Jersey, as well as industrial treatment water or storm water discharges, because the river is a drinking water source for American Water Co., supplier for many New Jersey towns.

Emissions will fall into the river as well as drifting over New Jersey, he added.

At an initial hearing in December, Stine asked the Pennsylvania environmental agency for an environmental impact study prior to any permitting.

The Israel-headquartered Elcon has scheduled a Feb. 11 public presentation in Falls Township on a future air quality permit in case DEP approves the site criteria permit before then.

Elcon consultant Rengarajan Ramesh praised the thermal oxidation process to treat organics in waste water through the chemical reactors of manufacturing plants as the cleanest form of hazardous waste treatment.

"It is the most eco-friendly solution available today," he said. "We are trying to clean up the problems other companies create in manufacturing."

He added the byproduct water is clean and air emissions are much lower than those produced by incineration.

"We do not have to discharge the water into the river," Ramesh explained.

"If we are required to, it can be used in our own industrial process or reused by nearby industries in the industrial park."

Reach Carol Comegno at (856) 486-2473 or ccomegno@cpsj.com.