As part of its commitment to protect everyone’s right to a healthy environment, Clean Air Council helps residents track the pollution permits that industrial facilities apply for across Pennsylvania. To make it even easier for the public to understand what kinds of pollution are affecting their neighborhoods, the Council created a brand new tool. The Pollution Tracker is based on years of Clean Air Council’s work monitoring and analyzing the applications submitted by businesses to permit them to release pollutants into the air and water. By exploring this tool, residents can look up major facilities in Southeast Pennsylvania, discover permits companies have applied for, where sites have violated those permits, and what action the Council has taken to inform surrounding communities.
The site, built by Philly-based designer Dain Saint, currently hosts data for many facilities throughout Southwest Philadelphia and Delaware County. It’s simple to use: explore the map and click on the blue or red dots to open detailed entries. If you know the name or address of a facility, you can also search for it directly. For each site, you’ll first find a listing of its name, address, and a brief description or label.
Within each entry, depending on the site, you may also discover information about the facility from the offices of Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection or the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. You’ll also learn whether the site has paid any federal penalties in the last five years or if it has a history of previous “Action Alerts” that Clean Air Council has released in response to permit applications at these facilities. Each entry also lists known information about any environmental permits filed in compliance with the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and the Toxic Substances Control Act. If information about those is available, you’ll find a color-coded card listing its status, including any known violations.
If the dot representing the facility on the map is red, that means the site has recently violated its environmental permits – you can learn more by opening its entry. If a site is represented by a blue dot, the site may have no recent violations. Crucially, however, that does not mean that the facility isn’t harming the region or the planet – it simply means that local authorities are not aware that it has released more pollutants or waste than it has previously agreed to release. Many of these sites are legally permitted to release harmful substances like greenhouse gases (which bake our planet), particulate matter (which can contribute to respiratory illness), or carcinogens. Still others are not required to have monitoring or tracking equipment for these purposes, which only means we do not know whether they are releasing pollutants at all. Given that Southeastern Pennsylvania regularly fails national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) and the region has an unusually high rate of respiratory problems like childhood asthma, it’s critical that efforts be made to comprehend the impacts of the region’s dense industrial development.
The goal of the Pollution Tracker is to help residents remain informed about the many industrial facilities in our region and partake in the public engagement processes surrounding their siting, development, and permitting. Clean Air Council regularly helps residents participate in these processes so that we can all protect public health in Southeastern Pennsylvania and reduce the emissions causing the climate crisis.
The Pollution Tracker will be updated regularly as the Council continues this work. If you’re interested in learning more about the Tracker, have questions about its contents, or want to get involved, contact Clean Air Council Advocate Russell Zerbo at rzerbo@cleanair.org.
WASHINGTON D.C. (November 26, 2025) – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its final rule to delay critical methane protections—which EPA released in 2024. This rule comes after EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin unlawfully used the Interim Final Rule process to immediately delay the 2024 Methane Rule without allowing Americans, including impacted residents, to voice their concerns about how the delay will harm their health.
The methane-mitigating technologies and strategies required by the rule are readily available and cost-effective. However, instead of requiring industry polluters to comply with these commonsense protections, Administrator Zeldin has illegally pushed the Delay Rule ahead to give oil and gas companies a free pass for their pollution.
As a result of this delay, people living closest to oil and gas infrastructure are continuing to be unnecessarily exposed to pollution from the industry, which would otherwise have been addressed through the 2024 Methane Rule. Once fully implemented, the 2024 Methane Rule is expected to reduce 58 million tons of climate-warming methane emissions, 16 million tons of health-harming volatile organic compounds, and 590 thousand tons of hazardous air pollutants by 2038. The Rule is estimated to prevent nearly 100 thousand cases of asthma symptoms each year.
Alex Bomstein, Executive Director of Clean Air Council, issued the following statement:
“The delay of the 2024 Methane Rule is EPA’s latest move to favor polluters while sacrificing the health of Americans who live closest to oil and gas infrastructure. Strong methane standards have widespread and bipartisan support as a commonsense policy to reduce both pollution and waste.”
Philadelphia and Delaware County are uniquely vulnerable to impacts of climate change, even compared to the rest of Pennsylvania. Residents in communities along the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers face extreme heat and flooding risks compounded by the large amounts of polluting industrial facilities in densely populated riverfront areas.
Clean Air Council’s three-year Climate Resilient Communities project brought together residents in South and Southwest Philadelphia as well as Chester, Trainer, and Marcus Hook in Delaware County to address the combined risk of climate change and pollution. The Council’s forthcoming Climate Resilient Communities report, developed by landscape architects at Olin Design Studio, provides key findings and recommendations to address the risks and build climate resiliency.
One of the key findings of the study is that riverfront industrial infrastructure can cause dangerous public health conditions, like increased air and water pollution, during extreme heat and precipitation events. Recommended resiliency strategies include strengthening connections between local leaders, neighbors, and community groups and the expansion of storm shelters, cooling centers and air conditioned recreational space.
Over the course of three years, Clean Air Council and community partners surveyed residents and hosted regular meetings in each focus neighborhood. Residents reviewed local climate models, identified locations most impacted by heat and flooding, and provided extensive feedback on resilience strategies that would have the greatest impact in their communities.
Council staff then worked with residents and partners in each neighborhood to develop green infrastructure projects to mitigate heat and flooding impacts and support climate resiliency. Ideas for projects included transforming vacant lots into community gardens, adding native trees and pollinator plants to local parks, and transforming existing parks into naturescapes for families and children to enjoy. Based on residents’ feedback, four climate resilient communities projects were implemented.
In Delaware County, the Council worked with the City of Chester, Legacy Arts Chester and Bonnie’s Community & Development Corp to make significant improvements to Sun Village Park, including a storybook walk and native pollinator garden, new picnic tables and benches, and vibrant mural and art installations around the park’s pavilion and tennis courts. The Council also worked with Trainer Borough, Marcus Hook Area Neighbors for Public Health, and the NMS Watersheds Alliance to install a storybook walk, native pollinator garden, native flowering trees, mural arts, and a free little library at Wilcox Park next to Monroe Refinery in Trainer. These revitalized park spaces in Delaware County provide residents with shaded spaces to connect with nature, art, literacy, and other neighbors. Respite and community gathering spaces help to build social connection and cohesion, which are vital to a community’s climate resiliency plan.
In South Philadelphia, the Council worked with the Church of the Redeemer Baptist’s Growing Together Community Garden to expand the existing native pollinator garden and create a gathering space for gardeners of the site’s over 200 plots. This included the installation of new picnic tables with shade umbrellas as well as several park benches. The creation of a community gathering space in the garden will support residents to further develop this local greenspace, which helps to cool the neighborhood and build community cohesion.
In addition to the pollinator garden and seating areas, Council staff worked with Philly Thrive’s Mutual Aid circle and the Tasker-Morris Neighborhood Association to create a climate guide of the Grays Ferry neighborhood that shows pollution sources as well neighborhood resources. The guide is featured in a custom made climate information station in the garden, which features a planter box as well as a space to distribute community flyers and pamphlets.
In Southwest Philadelphia’s Eastwick neighborhood, Council staff worked with Eastwick United, Eastwick Friends and Neighbors, and the Eastwick Recreation Center to place three additional climate information stations around Eastwick. These climate hubs (which are also public planters) inform residents about neighborhood meetings on local flood risks, illegal dumping, and other environmental health and climate issues. Council staff also worked with these organizations on a detailed climate guide of Eastwick that includes nearby environmental hazards as well as many local assets.
Clean Air Council will continue sharing the key findings and recommendations of the Climate Resilient Communities report with local decision makers, and will continue to work with local leaders to expand access to safe public amenities like parks and greenspaces while encouraging responsible development along local riverfronts. For more information please contact Advocate Russell Zerbo at rzerbo@cleanair.org, Philadelphia Organizer Jendaiya Hill at jhill@cleanair.org, or Delco Outreach Coordinator Alyssa Felix-Arreola at afa@cleanair.org
This Climate Resilient Communities project was made possible through a grant from the William Penn Foundation.
Using public transportation like trains and buses is one of the greenest ways to commute. By riding together instead of in individual cars, we save energy and emissions — and even money! But, as any commuter knows, trains and buses don’t always run on time. People often hesitate to rely on mass transit because they worry about being late to work or being stranded in an emergency without a car nearby.
That’s what the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission’s Emergency Ride Home program is all about, and Clean Air Council has just expanded it with a pilot project in Media, Pennsylvania. The Emergency Ride Home program uses cost reimbursement to support transit riders when emergencies disrupt their commute plans and serves those who live and/or work in southeastern Pennsylvania.
This new pilot specifically serves transit riders on four routes (SEPTA bus routes 110, 111, 114, and 117) that access Fair Acres Geriatric Center in Media. Qualifying commuters can receive an Uber voucher of up to $50 during an emergency—like when transit is seriously delayed, canceled, or can’t get you to the site of the emergency—and can redeem a voucher up to two times for the duration of the program through June 30, 2026.
If you’ve ever wanted to try taking SEPTA to work or around town but were afraid to take the plunge, signing up for this program might just put your mind at ease. Interested? Find out more below!
Who Qualifies for the Pilot Program?
To participate in this program, you must:
Be dedicated to taking SEPTA bus routes 110, 111, 114, and/or 117 at least twice a week to work
OR Live or work within the Fair Acres region
What Counts as an “Emergency”?
- Unexpected personal or family emergency or illness
- Unscheduled overtime
- If a rider cannot reach the site of the emergency via transit in a timely fashion
- If the rider’s regular route is delayed for over 30 minutes or cancelled, and this will cause an unsafe situation or undue expense for the rider (e.g. late fees for daycare or missed medical appointment)
How Do I Participate in the Pilot?
Step 1: Check your eligibility, register, and complete your profile at ShareARide.AgileMile.com/CAC
Step 2: In a qualifying emergency situation, request a free ride (up to $50) through the Share-A-Ride website. You will receive a unique code to use when paying through the Uber app.
Step 3: Download the Uber app and create an account.
Step 4: Use the Uber app to schedule a ride and apply your unique code at checkout.
The Cobbs Creek Watershed Coalition works to protect not only Cobbs Creek itself, but also the neighborhoods that surround it. One issue that has come up again and again is the deteriorating condition of the Elmwood Park Plaza parking lot at 70th and Elmwood Avenue (6930 Elmwood Avenue). Despite being a regular topic at community meetings and civic discussions, the problems in this area remain unresolved, raising both safety and environmental concerns for residents.
Neighbors report that the parking lot has become a site for illegal auto repair activity, creating a range of hazards. According to Philadelphia city code, public parking lots are intended for one purpose: parking cars. Performing auto repairs in these spaces is not only illegal, it’s dangerous. In Elmwood Park Plaza, it’s common to see cars being serviced openly, with tools, oil containers, and car parts scattered around the lot.
This activity contributes to unsafe conditions for pedestrians and shoppers. Large piles of empty motor oil containers, spilled fluids, and various auto-related waste are often found on-site. These materials create fire hazards and pose slipping risks, especially in wet or icy weather. Beyond the immediate safety issues, this kind of pollution can also harm the local watershed. Runoff from oil, antifreeze, and other contaminants can make its way into storm drains and eventually reach Cobbs Creek.
The Cobbs Creek Watershed Coalition recognizes that protecting the watershed also means protecting the health, safety, and quality of life in nearby communities like Elmwood. That’s why we’re encouraging residents to speak up and report what they see.
If you’d like to take action, here’s how:
Report Code Violations to the Department of Licenses & Inspections (L&I):
South District Code Enforcement Unit
2401 Walnut St., Suite 502, Philadelphia, PA 19103
📞 (215) 685-1510
You don’t need to be an expert—just call and say that you use Elmwood Park Plaza and the volume of auto repair activity is creating unsafe and unsanitary conditions.
Let Your Councilmember Know:
Council President Kenyatta Johnson’s office wants to hear from you, especially if you’ve reported this issue to L&I.
📞 (215) 686-3412 or (215) 686-3413
Abandoned Vehicles Are a Nuisance:
Unregistered or abandoned cars in the lot should be reported to the Philadelphia Parking Authority:
📞 (215) 683-9773
🌐 philapark.org/nuisance
For additional questions or support, contact Russell Zerbo at Clean Air Council:
📧 rzerbo@cleanair.org
📞 (215) 567-4004 x130
By reporting these ongoing issues, you’re helping to improve public safety, protect the environment, and ensure that all of Southwest Philadelphia including the neighborhoods around Cobbs Creek remains a healthy and thriving place to live.
PHILADELPHIA, PA (June 13, 2025) – This week, Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced proposals to repeal two rules that protect Americans’ health and future prosperity: the 2024 Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) which protect American families from being sickened by mercury, arsenic, and other poisonous heavy metals, and the 111 Power Plant rule that limits climate pollution from power plants.
The MATS, adopted in 2012, reduced the amount of toxic air pollution that coal- and oil-fired power plants may emit. These standards have successfully reduced by 85% heavy metal emissions, including mercury, which is a neurotoxin that can cause life-long brain injuries to infants and children. Power plants now expose communities to less arsenic and other heavy metals — pollutants linked to cancer, birth defects, and cardiovascular disease. The MATS are designed to be updated every 8 years to keep up with technological advances, and coal-fired power plants are still the largest American source of toxic metal pollution. Some of these airborne microscopic metal particles are inhaled, and may be small enough to travel through a person’s lungs into their bloodstream. Much of this pollution falls from the air onto homes and soil, or contaminates water bodies. Responding to the public need and technological advancement, EPA strengthened the MATS emission limits in 2024. Now Trump’s EPA is gutting those protections in an apparent attempt to prevent the modernization of American energy infrastructure in favor of propping up antiquated coal plants.
EPA finalized the Power Plants Rule last year to require coal- and gas-burning power plants to control 90% of their climate pollution. Once implemented, this Rule, along with related regulations and federal clean energy investments, was anticipated to prevent 30,000 premature deaths and save $275 billion per year. Climate heating is already causing Americans to suffer from more frequent severe storms and heat waves, food and water insecurity, and increased populations of disease-bearing insects like ticks. Yet Trump’s administration is focused on eliminating climate protections like the Power Plants Rule and withdrawing investments in renewable technologies. As a result, Trump may be ceding future energy leadership to other nations such as China, which has already secured the vast majority of the current global market in solar panel production.
Alex Bomstein, Clean Air Council Executive Director, issued the following statement:
“By rolling back critical safeguards, EPA is prioritizing Trump’s polluters-first agenda over the health of American families suffering from developmental damage, cancer, and cardiovascular illness caused by needless heavy metal pollution. EPA Administrator’s Zeldin’s claim that promoting coal plants will lead to American ‘energy dominance’ is akin to insisting that we can lead the way in transportation by bolstering manufacturing of horse-drawn carriages or in communication technology by promoting production of corded telephones. We should instead be at the forefront of the global renewable energy revolution that vastly reduces harmful pollution and protects our health.”
Written by Caroline Junker, Communications Intern
You may not have heard of “climate justice,” but chances are that you’ll support it when you know a bit more about it—that is, if you’re like most Americans surveyed in a recent study from Environmental Science & Policy.
To understand climate justice, let’s take a step back and remember the origins of the environmental justice movement. Environmental justice recognizes that everyone deserves equal access to the benefits of a safe, clean environment and a say in decisions about environmental policies that impact their communities. This notion might seem obvious, but before the 1970s, Americans didn’t have a clear vision of how deeply racism shaped access to basic environmental rights for many minority groups. Environmental justice emerged as a new faction of activism when researchers, spurred by the Warren County protests, uncovered a vicious pattern across American cities: garbage disposal sites and pollution-causing facilities are consistently located in low-income communities and communities of color, overburdening those communities with pollution.
In this context, we can understand climate justice as a natural extension of environmental justice that focuses specifically on the impacts of climate change. Climate justice is founded on the idea of addressing climate inequality, the proven idea that the brunt of ill effects caused by climate change is often disproportionately borne by minority groups. This pattern can be seen across the globe, but also on a smaller scale within the U.S., as the researchers of “Americans’ support for climate justice” pointed out.
A clear example is redlining, the collection of racist neighborhood grading policies that compelled mortgage lenders to refuse loans to Black Americans, making it effectively impossible for Black Americans to buy houses in desirable neighborhoods or accumulate wealth from home ownership. As a result of this, many more non-White populations currently live in areas that have historically lacked funding than White populations. Walking down the streets in these neighborhoods, you may notice few green spaces but many paved surfaces, factors that make warm summer air even hotter and increase hazardous exposure to heat. Residents of these disinvested neighborhoods are more likely to be exposed to air, water, and noise pollution, and statistically live by nearly twice the density of oil and gas wells compared to neighborhoods that were ranked highly in the redlining system. Essentially, entrenched systemic racism has resulted in many non-White populations living in underserved neighborhoods that are deprived of the infrastructure and support necessary to combat the effects of climate change.
Another example that might be on your mind is the recent wildfires that devastated Los Angeles. While people from a wide variety of economic walks of life all suffered tragic losses and property damage, only a slim minority of the ultrawealthy had the deep pockets necessary to hire private firefighters. Residents of Altadena, a diverse community, might not have the financial ability to rebuild their houses. Many fear the encroachment of private equity firms, and research has shown that Black Americans are less likely than White Americans to receive relief funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
So how does climate justice intend to remedy these inequalities? The aim of climate justice is, as defined by the investigators of the study, three-pronged: to decrease the unequal negative impacts of climate change, to create solutions that include benefits for disproportionately harmed communities, and to give a voice to these communities when making decisions. If that sounds reasonable to you, then you’re on the same page as 53% of study participants, who decided they supported climate justice after reading a definition.
In this study, a sample of generally representative Americans were surveyed to learn about how their knowledge of climate justice correlated with other variables. Researchers used their responses to questions about race, climate change, politics, and culture to build a statistical picture of how these factors interact with support of climate justice.
Overall, only 19% of respondents opposed climate justice. Researchers found that people concerned about climate change in general were likely to support climate justice if they knew about it, but only 34% of Americans had heard of the term. In terms of race, people aware of racial injustice were also more likely to support climate justice, although they might not be willing to actually take political action about it. A better predictor for desire to take action was race: non-White groups are more likely to act on climate justice than White groups. To fuel further work, researchers suggested a focus on outreach and education, with the goal of incentivizing the public to pressure policymakers and institutions to enact large-scale change.
You might ask what’s been done so far to mitigate these disproportionate effects of climate change. Funding has been diverted to impacted communities through initiatives such as the Justice40 initiative under the Biden administration and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Clean Air Council has worked directly with residents of overburdened communities, such as Southern Delaware County, to understand the impacts of local polluters like refineries and incinerators and work to lessen those harms. The Council aims to protect communities’ rights by collecting and spreading information, collaborating on and supporting local initiatives, and developing legal strategies to safeguard public health.
The Council also supports work to bolster communities’ climate resilience. Climate resilience is all about planning for the future. It can look like investments in infrastructure, such as planting trees to reduce heat, or forward-thinking policies, like developing disaster recovery strategies that rely on community input. These frameworks can help lighten climate-induced inequalities, and can boost every kind of community in their long-term ability to cope with climate change.
It’s clear how communities harmed by climate change would tangibly benefit from the goals of climate justice, but researchers suggest that even people who may not support climate justice could stand to benefit from its accomplishments, such as pollution reduction and job generation. In this way, climate justice can end up uplifting a broad array of people. Climate inequality is an unfortunate reality– but climate justice can present solutions.
WASHINGTON D.C. (December 17, 2024) – Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released its public interest determination analysis, which will provide a framework for evaluating new and pending permits for exporting liquified natural gas (LNG) to countries without a free trade agreement with the United States. This announcement comes nearly a year after President Biden paused permitting decisions for LNG export facilities, which chill fracked gas for storage and transportation to other countries overseas.
The analysis found that continued LNG exports are unsustainable and unadvisable. Notably, the new analysis paints a clear picture of the environmental justice, climate, and economic harms of widespread LNG exports. LNG export terminals are concentrated in communities already burdened by highly-polluting industries, and the buildout of new LNG export facilities will only exacerbate these impacts. LNG exports will also worsen climate change through increasing greenhouse gas emissions from upstream gas production and likely offsetting the development of clean, renewable energy worldwide. Furthermore, unchecked growth of LNG exports will drive up energy costs for residential and commercial consumers while generating profits for the fossil fuel industry. The analysis found flattening international demand for LNG, with most new demand expected to be from China.
Alex Bomstein, Executive Director of Clean Air Council, issued the following statement:
“This report should end the discussion: LNG exports are bad for our pocketbooks, bad for the air we breathe, and bad for the safety of our communities. Energy independence does not mean shipping America’s resources overseas, it means harnessing and storing our abundant solar and wind energy. Clean Air Council urges the DOE to apply the study’s findings and deny the six pending permits for LNG export facilities.”
The findings from this analysis will inform future LNG export authorization decisions by the DOE and hold proposed projects to the strongest-to-date commonsense standards for determining the public impacts of LNG exports. Moreover, the study provides an important factual basis for arguments to deny permits for unlawful LNG export terminal proposals. The new analysis will replace the economic and environmental analyses used by the DOE for application decisions, which were published in 2018 and 2019, respectively.
U.S. Steel has permanently shut down Battery 15 and applied for tighter limits on pollution linked to asthma
PITTSBURGH (June 4, 2024) – U.S. Steel has permanently shut down coke Battery 15, one of the oldest and most-polluting parts of the Clairton Coke Works, and has formally applied to the Allegheny County Health Department to remove the battery from its Clean Air Act permits. The closure of Battery 15, which had previously been temporarily idled, will permanently ratchet down emissions of harmful emissions such as sulfur compounds (linked to asthma and respiratory problems), benzene (linked to cancer), and fine particulates (linked to cardiovascular and other health problems). At the time of its closure, Battery 15 contained more than 10% of the remaining coke ovens at Clairton Works. The closure was confirmed in a filing with the Allegheny County Health Department on May 30, 2024.
That filing also includes an application by U.S. Steel to tighten the limit on emissions of hydrogen sulfide (a respiratory irritant), reducing the allowable limit nearly 30% from 35 to 25 grains per cubic foot of gas facility-wide.
Both of these changes were required under the terms of the historic settlement of federal Clean Air Act litigation by PennEnvironment, the Clean Air Council and Allegheny County. The lawsuit was filed in response to thousands of violations of air pollution limits after the massive fire at U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works on Christmas Eve, 2018.
Zachary Barber, the Clean Air Advocate with PennEnvironment, issued the following statement:
“Pittsburghers can breathe a little easier with the news that Allegheny County’s most-toxic polluter, the Clairton Coke Works, has permanently reduced its emissions of harmful air pollutants. Tightening pollution limits for hydrogen sulfide gas and requiring the permanent closure of one of the dirtiest parts of the Clairton Coke Works will pay public health dividends to local residents for years to come.”
Alex Bomstein, the Executive Director of Clean Air Council, issued the following statement:
“When we sued U.S. Steel, our number one priority was protecting the health of residents in the Mon Valley. The closure of Battery 15 was one of the most important steps toward that goal that we achieved in our historic legal victory over U.S. Steel. While nothing can undo the damage caused by U.S. Steel’s previous emissions, these reductions will reduce future harm and move the region toward the cleaner, more wholesome air it deserves.”
The Texas-based corporation Encina announced on April 18, 2024 that it was withdrawing its plan to develop a toxic plastics chemical recycling plant along the banks of the Susquehanna River in Point Township, Northumberland County.
The facility would have been the largest of its kind in the United States and intended to use extreme heat pyrolysis and refining processes to turn post-consumer plastic waste into benzene, a known carcinogen, xylene, and toluene. These chemicals were then to be shipped by rail, raising major air quality and safety concerns. The facility, proposed to be built in a floodplain along the West branch of the Susquehanna River, would have withdrawn 2.9 million gallons of water from the river per day, raising huge concerns about PFAS, microplastics, and other sources of contamination to a vital source of drinking water.
Encina’s permitting process was plagued with denials and deficiency letters. In March 2023, the Point Township Zoning Board unanimously rejected Encina’s application for a variance to build the facility above the height allowed for the site. In October 2023, Encina withdrew its application for a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit after receiving a second technical deficiency letter. Community opposition culminated on April 2, 2024, when Northumberland Borough Council, which is the neighboring municipality, unanimously passed a resolution opposing the Encina facility.
Community opposition arose immediately after the facility was first announced in 2022. Residents came together to form the group, Save Our Susquehanna (SOS). Community members met with their local officials, attended municipal and county council meetings, canvassed their neighbors, and wrote letters to the editor to the local newspaper. The Council worked with SOS members to review permit applications and flag deficiencies for regulatory departments.
In a tremendous display of community power, Northumberland County residents have shown that the chemical recycling and plastics industries are not welcome in Pennsylvania. However, the fight isn’t over. Encina has been defeated, but it was part of a rapid expansion of pyrolysis and “advanced recycling” facilities that are part of a larger industry-led greenwashing effort to rebrand plastic as sustainable. This is unproven technology: many existing facilities are not economically viable and have been plagued by environmental and safety disasters. Yet we know the industry will keep trying to bring these false solutions to our communities. The Council will continue working with the community group Save our Susquehanna to monitor potential developments and to envision alternatives for a truly sustainable future.
