PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Dozens of Chester residents testified at a Philadelphia city council hearing Wednesday, pleading with officials to end its contract with Covanta for processing waste at the company’s incinerator.
Chester resident Zulene Mayfield described the plant, owned by Covanta, as the leading killer in Chester. She told the council she believes it’s responsible for high rates of respiratory diseases and other illnesses.
“What they are doing to us is absolutely environmental genocide,” she said.
Convanta’s environmental manager Kim Bradford acknowledged that Chester has been overburdened by environmental hazards but defended the plant, saying emissions were under the limits set by Environmental Protection Agency officials.
“We are sensitive to these burdens and continually strive to do better,” she said.
The city’s use of a facility that pollutes a minority community became an issue during the mayoral primary last spring, when candidate Jeff Brown was asked about it and said, “The trash has to go somewhere,” a comment for which he was widely denounced. Yet the city has continued to send some 400 thousand tons of trash a year to the Chester plant.
Council member Kathy Gilmore Richardson, who called the hearing, noted the EPA lists the plant as in violation of the Clean Air and Water Acts. She says she will be watching until the contract comes up for renewal in 2026.
The city’s environmental planning director Scott McGrath said they have been working to increase recycling and reduce waste and says the Covanta contract is an interim step toward more sustainable measures.
“The current disposal options while not ideal represent the best available to us," he said.
Environmental advocates have urged city officials to speed up the transition and use landfills for disposal in the meantime.