Jeff Platsky

jplatsky@gannett.com | @JeffPlatsky

NEW MILFORD, Pa. — Irate Susquehanna County, Pa. residents are preparing to do battle with anyone who has designs on putting an industrial waste incinerator in their backyard.

Some of the those battles have already been witnessed at county and municipal government meetings, where opponents offer sharp criticism of the project.

On Tuesday night, project critics attempted to further their cause, inviting a Cambridge University-trained chemist into the county to conduct an educational session on the incinerator's potential impact. Residents packed Blue Ridge High School auditorium to hear Paul Connett characterize the project as a blight on the landscape, and a serious health hazard to its residents.

"Incineration doesn't make sense in New Milford," said the former St. Lawrence University chemistry professor who claims to have stopped 300 incinerators worldwide. "It doesn't make sense anywhere in the world."

Byproducts of incineration include toxic substances that will be released into the atmosphere, fouling the air, crops and potentially water no matter how efficient operators claim the process is.

FIRED UP: Pa. incinerator opponents urge action

Almost 200 residents attended the session sponsored by the Susquehanna County League of Women Voters. Outside the session, opponents were securing additional signatures on petitions asking county and municipal officials to adopt air ordinances that would effectively block the project that was first revealed in April.

"Becoming a dumping ground for other communities' waste will hurt your image, your agriculture industry, your tourist industry and your property values," Connett told the crowd.

A King of Prussia-based company is planning an industrial incinerator in New Milford Township, just east of exit 219 on Interstate 81, about 20 miles south of Binghamton and 12 miles south of the New York border.

Though no plans have been submitted, county officials have been told of the basic outline of an incinerator and industrial park on a 114-acre parcel. New Milford Township land has been secured, but sponsors indicate it would be premature to talk to the community about the plant because engineering studies are still being prepared. Project sponsors skipped the Tuesday meeting though they were issued numerous invitations.

Based on preliminary plans by a company called Tyler Corners, an industrial incinerator is expected to be an anchor for a industrial park within eyesight of the I-81, just across the road from the Flying J truck stop/convenience store.

Other than brief statements on a company web site, representatives of the sponsor have been tight-lipped about the developments, committing to keep the public informed as plans proceed and applications are made to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. What little information sponsors have released trumpet the project as an economic boost for Susquehanna County, with the potential of supplying good paying jobs in this largely rural county that has been boosted by plentiful natural gas reserves in the shale underneath the ground.

Town afire over incinerator plan

But Connett said residents should not be taken in by the promise of jobs and associated development in the industrial park surrounding the incinerator.

"Don't be fooled by the package," he cautioned. "You are being duped with the promises of 20 pieces of silver, the promise of jobs and the promise of economic development."

Nearby residents wonder if the environmental cost of the project outweighs the benefits. Many fear the incinerator will spread noxious emissions within a 50-mile radius of the incinerator.

John Madura, 51, lives within eyesight of the proposed project. He's concerned about the potential impact on his 9-year-old sons, his wife, and potential impacts on the artesian well that provides his water supply.

"We're getting contamination from the bottom and now the top. It's scary," he said.

An industry trade group, however, says residents should not be overly alarmed by an incinerator. Plants, such as the one proposed, operate under strict control of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and would be subject to additional rules established by state environmental regulators.

The Environmental Technology Council, a Washington-based trade group representing the hazardous waste incinerator industry, says that while it understands public concerns about potential impacts, it asserts scientific studies have concluded hazardous waste incinerators produced "no adverse consequences to the public health or the environment."

Regular monitoring by state and federal regulators, in addition to scrutiny of plant inputs and outputs, assures a relatively clean operation, the trade group said.

Connett, however, says Susquehanna County shouldn't buy the public relations material from the industry. He said residents should be especially wary of a company with little or no record in disposing hazardous waste.

"You're asking for trouble having amateurs run a hazardous waste incinerator," he said.