An Elcon official shows off a rendering of the facility in 2015.
Credit: Tom Sofield/NewtownPANow.com
The hazardous waste facility proposed for Lower Bucks County will be discussed at Newtown Township’s Board of Supervisors meeting next month.
At last week’s meeting, Vice Chairman Mike Gallagher said he was interested in hearing more about the Elcon facility proposed for the Keystone Industrial Port Complex in Falls Township. Those with information on the planned facility were set to be invited to present in April before Newtown officials.
Newtown Environmental Advisory Council member Steven Bacher spoke before the board and advised the elected officials to draft a resolution opposing the Elcon facility.
Bacher raised concerns about pollution that could be discharged from the facility and its proximity to the Delaware River, which is a major source of local drinking water.
Elcon plans to build a 22-acre treatment facility at a 33-acre site about a mile from the Delaware River. The facility could process up to 596 chemicals that are used by companies in the manufacturing of products.
Dr. Rengarajan Ramesh, a consultant for Elcon, said last summer that the proposed facility would be “clean, green and sustainable.” He also heralded the jobs the facility could bring and the fact that Elcon had made changes to their plan.
After a first failed attempt to build a facility in Falls, Elcon revised their plans and scrapped a pipeline that would dump treated waste water into the Delaware River. Their current plan would see the treated waste water evaporated after being placed into an indoor closed-loop system. The left over distilled water would be reused to cool equipment at the facility.
The main concerns are over the toxins that could be released if a catastrophic spill or flood caused the facility to leak past containment systems and into the Delaware River. A simulation run by the Philadelphia Water Department showed a leak of hazardous waste into the Delaware River could cause dangerous health impacts for the 1.7 million people that use city water, including Bucks County communities.
Several New Jersey communities, along with Morrisville and Tullytown, have already voiced opposition to the proposed facility.
The state has already approved a preliminary Phase I application for the site and the company is expected to soon submit the more-involved Phase II application.
