We don’t want your trash in Chester

To the Editor,

I was fine reading Bill Foster’s (publishers note: Bob Foster) commentary (The Swarthmorean, April 23) about the problems with the recycling of some plastics — until I got to the part where he suggested that people dump their empty containers in Crum Creek or send them here to Chester’s Covanta incinerator as trash. That’s all Chester needs: an accumulation of plastic junk in the creek from upstream, and all that toxic smoke and ash from Covanta. Foster says Covanta has “some pollution controls.” The truth is, this huge incinerator — one of the biggest in the country — has less in the way of pollution controls than most other such trash incinerators.

I agree with one point in Foster’s piece: Covanta is indeed “well within breathing distance of many people, including – on a calm day – Swarthmore residents.” But by far the worst pollution fallout is right here in Chester, as Covanta burns other people’s trash. Tons of the stuff is shipped here daily from the rest of Delaware County, as well as from Philadelphia, New York City, and elsewhere. This results in health problems ranging from especially high rates of asthma and lead poisoning in young children to various kinds of cancer for the rest of us. Chester’s own trash makes up less than 3% of what is burned.

So, no thanks, Mr. Foster. You go ahead and burn your plastic waste in your own backyard, but leave Chester out of it, please.

Will Richan
Chester