Thirteen Falls and area residents attended Falls supervisors' meeting Tuesday to oppose Elcon Recycling Services' proposed hazardous waste treatment facility.

Exactly when Elcon Recycling Services' proposed hazardous waste treatment facility will come before Falls supervisors is yet to be determined.

Even so, 13 township and area residents shared their opposition with the board during its public comment segment Tuesday night, with several making impassioned pleas for supervisors to vote down the facility when the time comes.

Elcon has proposed building a seven-building facility on a 23-acre parcel of former U.S. Steel land in the Keystone Industrial Port Complex, where it would treat 193,000 tons of hazardous and pharmaceutical waste each year using a process called thermal oxidization. The state Department of Environmental Protection is scheduled to discuss the project at a public meeting March 5, before its May deadline to consider Elcon's development application.

A recurring concern from speakers was the potential impact the plant could have on local air quality. Several cited an American Lung Association study released last year that gave Bucks County a "failing" grade for air quality and found it to be second-worst in the state based on 2014-2016 data, just behind Philadelphia.

Another "what if" discussed was possible pollution plant operations could cause to the Delaware River, and the drinking water it provides numerous area municipalities.

Kim Rock, a Lower Makefield resident, recounted how residents of her township had to fill up on water from trucks after a mechanical control issue prompted the PA American Water Co. to declare a boil water advisory for a five-day stretch late last year.

"What happens if Elcon has some kind of spill and now we've got an even wider spread amount of impact?" Rock posed. "How many people are lining up now to buy water bottles and fill tankers and jugs and everything?"

Rock, a realtor, also shared an anecdote of clients who moved their search for a home from Fairless Hills to Montgomery County after an anti-Elcon button on her jacket prompted a discussion of the project.

"'We just don't want to raise a family (here) if something like that, of this magnitude is coming to town,'" Rock said her clients told her in a later phone call.

Shivani Patel was one of two Pennsbury High School students who spoke out against the Elcon facility, saying her generation would bear the brunt of any negative impacts from the project.

"The decision being made right now will affect us and our kids and their kids ... This is our world, our responsibility, our future," she said.

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.

But 64-year Falls resident Don Markert expressed skepticism, and said when it comes to environmental matters, corporate accountability is a "lax concept."

Area resident Constantina Lambrou said she believes Elcon selected Falls to house its project on purpose, on account of its demographics and status as a low-to-middle-income municipality.

Falls supervisors have remained publicly mum on the Elcon facility; Supervisor Jeff Dence told meeting attendees this is because the township's legal counsel advised the board not to comment on the project.

Dence assured the residents their concerns were not falling on deaf ears, saying, "We hear you. We see you."

Supervisors Chairman Bob Harvie said Falls has a legal obligation to review the Elcon plans, which the township received Jan. 25, and could not unilaterally decide to ignore them. Falls' engineer currently is reviewing the plans, after which it could come before township attorneys, zoning officials and the fire marshal in the lead-up to an ultimate supervisors meeting.

"We’re not setting a (meeting) date and saying to our engineer 'have it by this date,'" Harvie said.

This news organization filed a records request for the latest Elcon project documents in late January. Falls staff have said the township will respond to the request by March 8, following a legal review.