Elcon Air Pollutants DEP May Allow

John Mack, Wednesday, Mar 13, 2019, Newtown Board of Supervisors Meeting

At the March 13, 2019, Board of Supervisors meeting, John Mack called for the Board to re-affirm its opposition to the ELCON hazardous waste treatment plant proposed to be built in nearby Falls Township. Mack listed all the air pollutants that the PA DEP Definition may allow to be emitted from the plant.

Proposed “emission limits” in the recent PA DEP Definition permit application: nitrogen oxides – 23.4 tons per year; carbon monoxide – 36.6 tons per year; sulfur oxides – 24.2 tons per year; volatile organic compounds – 10.1 tons per year; particulate matter – 10.5 tons per year; for hydrochloric acid – 6.3 tons per year!

Note that the 2016 Newtown Resolution opposing this project estimated that “the incinerator treatment process will produce over 39 tons of air emissions” whereas the recent data cited above adds up to more than 111 tons – or nearly three times as much!

DEP has yet to do an analysis of where these pollutants would be carried by air currents.