Delco Prepares To Stop Use Of Covanta; Expect Trash Costs To Hike — Delaware County (Pa) Council, yesterday, May 15, approved two ordinances. One extends the existence of the Delaware County Sold Waste Authority to Jan. 1, 2074. The other incurs $35 million in debt for it.
The money will allow the authority to rip down its existing trash transfer stations and replace them with neato, shiny new ones.
More significantly it will allow it to expand its use of the Rolling Hills Landfill in Berks County with the goal of ending all use of the Covanta trash-to-steam plant in Chester.
Right now Covanta takes about 85 percent of Delco’s trash with the rest going to Rolling Hills.
Delco is not the only municipality that uses Covanta so it will not necessarily close when it stops getting Delco’s trash.
Covanta brings in about $8 million a year in revenue to Chester and provides electricity to power 48,000 homes.
Chester residents seem to want Covanta gone.
We sort of sympathize.
If we lived in Tinicum would we want Philadelphia International Airport gone?
If we lived in Marcus Hook, would we want the refineries gone?
Maybe.
On the other hand, if the closing of industry means wealthy Haverford Prep alumni get hip neighborhoods that produce nothing but hipness, and the not-so-wealthy are priced out of their homes, maybe not.
And if it means no air transport or gasoline, and the cost of garbage disposal doubles, definitely not.
The ones running Delaware County are not deep thinkers.
