Clean Air Council Appeals Permit Exemption for Proposed Petrochemical Facility in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania

NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY, PA (October 25, 2022) Today, Clean Air Council brought a legal challenge to a permit waiver for the Encina plastics processing facility proposed for Point Township, Northumberland County. The facility, planned to be sited next to the Susquehanna River, would be a significant source of harmful pollution for surrounding communities. As it stands, Encina would be exempt from the requirement to apply for a processing facility permit under the Solid Waste Management Act.

Encina’s plastics processing technology is relatively new and misleadingly called “advanced recycling” by the company. It is closer to incineration. While Encina is not disclosing the details of its process, emissions from plastics processing facilities like the one proposed for Northumberland County may be even more hazardous than those from conventional solid waste incinerators. In addition to the dangerous emissions, the facilities typically generate hazardous ash, which is then shipped offsite for disposal.

Encina is proposing to shoehorn two phases of its Point Township project into a state permit exemption that is only allowed for the second phase: the “advanced recycling” phase. This exemption could allow Encina to avoid the requirement for a solid waste permit that is intended to protect the community. Therefore, it is premature for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to grant any exemption for the facility as a whole. An exemption for Phase 1, which only mechanically processes solid waste, would never be appropriate.. 

“Encina is trying to fool the public into believing that its unproven plastics processing technology is clean ‘recycling’,” said Joseph Otis Minott, Clean Air Council Executive Director and Chief Counsel. “DEP shouldn’t be compounding the problem by letting the proposed waste processing plant avoid a waste processing permit. Bottom line, Encina is proposing a dirty petrochemical facility that is greenwashing itself as a sustainable business and skirting the permitting process.”

“I am normally in favor of recycling as an environmentally sustainable practice but there are just too many unknowns about this unproven technology and the air and water pollution that will be associated with the project for me to support it,” said Sandy Field, Lewisburg, PA resident. “Producing these toxic chemicals right next to the river that provides our drinking water just seems like a bad idea.”