Make sure you tell DEP how you feel about this local industrial waste treatment project. Deadline is Friday. buckscountycouriertimes/news/communities/falls/community-activists-urging-opposition-to-proposed-plant-in-falls/article_44164a94-461d-5cb0-9d2b-12b00644da17.html Community activists urging opposition to proposed plant in Falls Want to know more? Comments about the Elcon Recycling Services proposal can be sent by Friday to the Hazardous Waste Facility Siting Team Leader, DEP Southeast Regional Office, 2 E. Main St., Norristown, PA 19401, according to an agency spokeswoman. The states DEP also is accepting comments sent via email to [email protected], with Elcon noted in the subject line. Elcons application is available for review at DEP’s Southeast Regional Office. Call 484-250-5910 to make arrangements to review the application. The document also can be reviewed at the Rachel Carson State Office Building in Harrisburg by calling 717-787-6239. Go to dep.state.pa.us to learn more about the DEPs waste program. Keyword is waste management. Posted: Thursday, January 8, 2015 12:00 am | Updated: 7:19 am, Thu Jan 8, 2015. By Joan Hellyer Staff Writer Local environmental activists are calling on area residents to join them in their fight against a proposed industrial waste treatment facility in Falls. The activists are members of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and the League of Women Voters of PA. Members said they are concerned the plant could cause air and water pollution. Elcon Recycling Services wants to build the plant at 100 Dean Sievers Place in the Keystone Industrial Port Complex. The Israeli-based company plans to use the facility primarily to treat liquid waste from the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. The company is trying to secure approval from the state Department of Environmental Protection to build the plant, which would sit about a half-mile away from the Delaware River. The company is in the initial phase of a two-phase approval process. The DEP already agreed last month, at the urging of the activists, to extend the public comment period for the Phase 1 siting application from Dec. 26 to Friday. The activists this week said they have uncovered additional information that suggests the plant should not be built on the site — and are asking that the review period be extended even further. They point to the state’s Hazardous Waste Treatment and Disposal Facilities statute that says treatment and incineration facilities can not be built in the 100-year floodplain or a larger area that a flood of record has inundated unless industrial use on the proposed site existed as of Oct. 4, 1978. That is the effective date of the Flood Plain Management Act. The area was not in use for such industrial activities before or after 1978, said Betty Tatham of the League of Women Voters. The 100-year flood plain does not pertain to the Elcon site, company representative Rengarajan Ramesh said Wednesday night. Elcons facility is outside the 500-year flood plain, he said. The activists also suggest, according to their review of documentation related to the application, that Elcon has not answered all DEP questions regarding flooding criteria and wetlands during the Phase 1 review. Ramesh disputes that claim. Elcons application consists of multiple stages, he said. We are in the initial stage of the process. We have submitted the required information at this stage of the application process. As we progress, we are also answering the questions raised by the DEP and other permit agencies. DEP Community Relations Coordinator Lynda Rebarchak confirmed Wednesday that the agency has received requests from members of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and League of Women Voters to further extend the Phase I review period. “I want to stress that this will not be the only opportunity for folks to comment regarding this proposal,” Rebarchak said. The DEP will again accept comments about the proposed plant once Elcon submits a completed application for the more intensive second phase of the review, she said. That part of the review process, which could take about a year to complete, can not begin until Elcon secures a Phase 1 approval from the DEP. Joan Hellyer: 215-949-4048; email: jhellyer@calkins; Twitter: @BCCTintheknow
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 16:11:28 +0000
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