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Film Screening of Laid to Waste

by Worker Freedom | 02.04.2008

DelCo Alliance for Environmental Justice
presents
Film Screening of
Laid to Waste
followed by Panel Discussion and Question and Answer Session

Saturday, February 9, 2PM
Widener University
Kapelski Learning Center
Corner of 14th & Walnut Streets, Chester

Parking: Corner of 14th and Walnut or 17th and Walnut, Chester
Public Transportation: Bus #109

Over 700 Tons of Toxicants Released Yearly Through Air/Water by Delaware County Industries
Are We Willing to Continue to Take Risks with Our Health?

In the 1990s a group of Chester citizens protested the presence of four polluting, foul-smelling industries near their homes:

1. Westinghouse's incinerator, one of the biggest in the US, burning trash from Delaware County, Philadelphia, and the state of Delaware.
2. Thermal Pure's autoclave, sterilizing medical-chemical waste by heating it.
3. Soil Remediation Systems' (SRS') proposed plant to burn the soil's toxic gases.
4. Delaware County Regional Water Quality Control Authority's (DELCORA's) sewage treatment plant, burning sludge.
Besides holding street demonstrations, the group, with the pro bono help of a Philadelphia lawyer, sued Thermal Pure, SRS, and DELCORA for violations of law. The Thermal Pure suit uncovered a troubling link between the Supreme Court of PA and that company. The SRS suit would have gone to the US Supreme Court had not the company withdrawn its permit application, apparently to avoid setting a damaging precedent. DELCORA agreed to reduce its smokestack emissions and pay for a lead abatement program. Ultimately Thermal Pure shut down less than a year after it opened. SRS never opened. The incinerator, now owned by Covanta, and DELCORA's sewage treatment plant, are still open.

This film asks whether it's fair that so many industries of a type that no one wants to live next to should be located in one city. Are these industries why Chester residents have higher than normal rates of respiratory illness and cancer? Is this environmental racism? A question we raise now is what are the health risks to all Delaware County residents constantly exposed to chemicals such as benzene, naphthalene, lead, hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, ethylene, propylene, methanol and many others?

In 2002, our county ranked among the dirtiest/worst 10% of all counties in the U.S. in terms of cancer risk score (air and water releases). http://www.scorecard.org The situation could grow worse as new waste facilities are currently targeting Chester, including what would be the nation's largest tire incinerator.

Local organizations currently co-sponsoring this event:

Earthlust, Citizen Access, Green Party of Delaware County, Films for a Sustainable Future, Friends of Ridley Creek State Park, Delaware County Concerned Citizens for Environmental Change, Sierra Club, DelCo Action Seniors, Ghetto Print, ActionPA, Energy Justice Network, Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia, Coalition for Peace Action ChesCo/DelCo

For more information or to get involved, contact:

Phone: 484-302-0385
Email: delcoalliance@ejnet.org
Web: http://www.jnet.org/chester

Comments

YouTube Video

Submitted by Worker Freedom (not verified) on Fri, 02/08/2008 - 8:44am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtUhW6VoT_Y

One correction though,The Chester Waste Management facility is actually the seventh largest in the country not the fourth

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