PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A comment made during a Philadelphia mayoral debate has rekindled frustration over a trash incinerator in Chester.
During Tuesday’s debate on Fox29, candidate Jeff Brown was asked his thoughts on Chester residents who are concerned about Philadelphia trash.
“Chester is Chester,” Brown said. “I’m worried about Philadelphians and how their lives are.”
When asked to clarify, Brown said, “I don’t work for them if I’m the mayor. I work for Philadelphia, and the trash has to go somewhere.”
Delaware County State Representative Carol Kazeem, who represents Chester, feels it is environmental racism, adding that anyone who wants to represent Philadelphia needs to understand they represent the entire region.
“When I look at a community like Philadelphia ... we always have to stand together, we have to fight for our communities because we actually suffer the same exact things.”
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In 1992, Zulene Mayfield formed a group, Chester Residents Concerned for Quality Living, fighting the Delaware Valley Resource Recovery Facility – parent company to the Covanta Waste-to-Energy plant, which is considered one of the largest trash incinerators in the region – for 30 years.
According to Covanta, the facility processes more than 1.2 million tons of waste each year from Philadelphia, Delaware County, New York, New Jersey and parts of Maryland to generate enough electricity to power 48,000 homes each year, and is 100% compliant with EPA standards.
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A spokeswoman for Covanta noted that other sources, like airports, an entanglement of major interstate highways, railways and even commercial cooking all contribute more significantly to the local airshed in comparison to the Chester facility.
“The people are having high asthma rates. They're having respiratory infections. We have a high case of cancer [in Chester],” Kazeem said. “What more does it take?”