County council to hold solid waste educational session Sept. 30

County council will host a session Sept. 30 to learn the pros and cons of solid waste handling, including the future of the Covanta Chester facility.

Delaware County Council will host an educational session on how the county handles solid waste at 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 30 in the county council meeting room in the Government Center, 201 W. Front St. in Media.

Council Chairman Brian Zidek said county council and the Delaware County Solid Waste Authority will be in attendance and council is hopeful that a representative from Covanta will also attend.

The county Solid Waste Authority is an independent board that makes decisions on how the county’s trash is managed. They are the ones who will be deciding on renewing the Covanta contract with the county, which expires next year.

Covanta is a steam-to-energy facility, also called an incinerator, based in Chester and burns 3,500 tons of municipal waste annually. About 30 percent of that comes from Delaware County and a little more than 1 percent comes from Chester City.

At the education session, panelists will answer questions from the public, Zidek said.

“Residents are invited to attend in person or watch a live stream of the meeting,” he continued. “A link to the live stream will be found on the county website at delcopa.gov.”

During the public comment section of county council’s meeting Wednesday, Zidek and other council members spoke to the complexity of the situation.

“It’s not as simple as simply snapping our fingers and then we decide not to send trash to Covanta 370,000 tons a year is, I think, what Delaware County sends to Covanta and then Covanta disappears,” he said. “I do not want Delaware County trash to be burned at Covanta. I do not think it’s appropriate that all of the trash in Delaware County goes to our poorest community. But, the fact remains that we have to figure out what to do then.”

He said one answer may be that Delco shouldn’t be producing 370,000 tons of trash a year.

“I don’t know what a reasonable about of trash is,” he added. “Whatever the amount of trash we produce, we have to figure out what is the best way to dispose of that … What options do we have and how do we get there?”

He said he thought it only fair to hear from the people who operate the incinerator to hear their perspective at the education session.

Zidek added that Councilman Kevin Madden, who was not present Wednesday, said he wanted to get more informed so that as decisions are made – understanding that it is the Solid Waste Authority makes the decision as to how to handle the trash, not county council – decision makers can be smarter about doing so, and so the educational session was scheduled.

In addition, he said it’s also important to hear from impacted citizens, several of whom attend council meetings on a regular basis to express their discontent with Covanta operations in Chester.

Zulene Mayfield of Chester Residents Concerned for Quality Living voiced concern about the weight of community concern relative to the amount of presenters at the Sept. 30 session.

“I think it’s imperative that we hear from all sides,” Councilwoman Elaine Paul Schaefer said. “Having a legislative hearing or an educational session where you only invite the people we agree with would be nonsensical. I would ask that the public have some trust in our ability to critically think. This council has shown that we have open minds, that we are willing to make change and willing to put our necks out for transformation.”

“This is a step in educating ourselves so that as we move forward, we know what the arguments are,” Schaefer said. “And, some of them, we will reject. Some of them, we will accept.”