Pennsylvania DEP delays hazardous waste recycling project

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection delayed a hazardous waste recycling project in Falls Township, Pennsylvania, after saying that a permit application was incomplete, a report by StateImpact Pennsylvania says. Elcon, the hazardous waste processor based in Haifa, Israel, had no submitted the information required for six categories.

The categories the state is seeking include stormwater management, legal ownership of the land where the proposed plant would be built and geological information based on professionally accepted standards.
The application is the second phase of a multiphase project for state approval. Elcon submitted its first application for location approval in March 2014 and was originally rejected on grounds of insufficient information. In November 2015, the state approved the first application.

Elcon plans to build a 70,000 square-foot facility on a 22-acre site that will process industrial waste such as petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals and semiconductors. Despite opponents saying the plant will be too close to the Delaware River and could cause contamination, Elcon’s website states the proposed facility would be outside of any wetlands, will not discharge into the river and would be virtually free of airborne contaminants.

According to the report, the plant would not accept radioactive waste or waste that comes from oil and gas fracking.

The report says the project will create 200 construction jobs and 175 permanent jobs in its first two phases. Elcon argued in the report that the plant’s presence would encourage pharmaceutical companies to move locations near the facility.