Yes. Hello, Lisa. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your public comment. Please summarize your testimony as we have several additional witnesses.
Please turn your computer down. We're receiving feedback.
The City should not renew its contract to pay Covanta to turn trash into breathable poison. It should adopt the Waste Contracting for Clean Air Act. Until Philadelphia reduces its waste stream landfilling is a better choice than Covanta. And in addition to mercury and other toxins, Covanta's emits many ozone precursors. Given that our regional ozone nonattainment area has recently been downgraded, the City should reduce its contributions to ozone by not feeding the incinerators. The direct cost of Covanta (inaudible) --
Okay. I'm sorry. We lost you for a moment. Please proceed.
Okay. The direct cost between Covanta and landfill are possible to switching low cost money. However, additional and indirect costs make landfilling a better economic and policy choice for the City for waste reduction. Most pollutants are not easily eliminated, but there are good alternatives to burning trash. Landfill now. Then reduce, reuse and recycle better, but don't burn. Thank you.
No, thank you. Thank you so much for your public comment. Eliza, please proceed with the next public commenter.
Yes. Mitch, are you connected and ready to proceed with your public comment? And also, please turn your computers down so that we do not receive feedback.
Got it. Yes. Thank you very much. Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. My name is Mitch Chanin. I'm speaking on behalf of POWER Interface, which I think as folks know is a multi-racial, multi-faith organization that works for racial and economic justice on the livable planet here in Philadelphia and in other parts of Pa. I'll be really, really quick. We are in solidarity with folk in Chester who are fighting to end the practice of incinerator in their community and support the call to end incineration of trash produced here in Philadelphia in order to protect public health. Just to add one thing that maybe hasn't been spoken yet in these testimonies is that I think Philly has been on what I think is a very, very slow journey towards ending incineration. We used to have multiple incinerators here in the City of Philadelphia to burn trash. Several were closed in the 1970s. Two more were closed in the late '80s including a huge one on Spring Garden Street right on the Delaware River. And then in 1988, City Council made the decision to reject the proposal from Mayor Goode to build a very large we'll call it trash-to-steam plant, another incinerator at the Navy Yard because of concerns about public health. And so, we've made a serious I think very good decision not to allow incineration in our City, but we've allowed our trash to be sent to be burned in another city polluting other lungs of Chester residents and folks in Plymouth Meeting and elsewhere. And so, now that we've stopped incinerating in Philly decades ago it's time to finally stop the practice of sending our trash to be burned in other communities. And, yeah, I'll leave it there. Thank you very much.
No, thank you very much, Mitch, for your public comment but also for your participation on the committees. Truly appreciate your feedback and your work. Eliza, please call the next public commenter.
Mary Ann Duffy, are you connected and ready to proceed with your public comment?
Yes. Thank you. Please turn down your computer. And for all the forthcoming public commenters, please turn your computers down so that we do not receive feedback.
Okay. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your public comment.
Hello. My name is Mary Ann Duffy. I'm an architect, a local member of AIA here with the Committee on Environment and a South Philadelphia resident. Here's my summary: There's absolutely nothing good that comes from incinerating trash. I want to highlight the outrageous greenwashing about energy by Covanta because incineration is even worse than coal. To make the same amount of energy at the coal power -- power plant trash incinerator, in 2018 really 65 percent more carbon dioxide, as much carbon monoxide, three times as much nitrogen oxide, five times as much mercury, nearly six times as much lead, 27 times as much hydrochloric acid. The comprehensive Delaware County Life Cycle Assessment Study conducted last year stated incineration in Covanta, then landfilling, incineration as it's far more harmful to human health and the environment than just simply sending its trash directly to landfill. Covanta's greenwashing plan filled roads with incinerator ash will also only further pollute our groundwater. Pennsylvania has landfills across the state making it the largest importer of trash from other states. So on the short-term, as many others have suggested, the lesser of two evils to end incineration immediately and use our landfills when we must as a first step to solving our waste pollution issue. So I'm asking Councilmembers to step up and show your love for our City and region, the people, the environment and your own health and the health of your children by signing the Waste Contracting for Clean Air Act to make it illegal for the City to continue to sign or renew contracts that burn our City's waste. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you very much for your public comment and for being with us today. We only have a few more witnesses, colleagues, and I appreciate you all being here and thank you so much for everything that you do to help our Council. I see my colleague Jim Harrity there. And so, for the next public commenters please turn your computers and/or televisions down so that we do not have additional feedback. Please summarize your public comment. Eliza, please call the next witness.
Shari, are you connected and ready to proceed with your public comment?
Yes. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your public comment.
Yes. Please proceed with your summarized public comment.
Okay. So we support the Resolution 630328(sic), and we are in solidarity with CRCQL, Chester Residents Concerned for Quality Living, and we are totally against incineration and we want to point out something I'm not sure that came up today. We support material diversion. We want to see a reduction of trash much more effective and really it's at 8 percent right now. We were at 6 percent in 2007. In 2015, we were up to 21 percent. I just want to compare it to LA, who's at a 76 percent of material diversion. And so, we wholly support the new zero waste and litter department in the City and professional and experienced leadership around material diversion, because Philadelphia could be one of the greenest most amazing cities in the country. And incineration points to our failure to live up to our potential and the resistance of our perhaps maybe the lack of expertise in our Streets Department to take on material diversion because it is a different expertise than transportation and managing streets, et cetera. So we strongly, strongly support getting rid of incineration and we need to reduce landfilling and we need to reduce the dumping and waste on our streets by diverting material and repurposing, recycling, all that stuff.
All right. Well, thank you kindly for your testimony and for joining us this afternoon. We do appreciate the feedback that you have noted, and thank you for that information you shared relative to Philadelphia in comparison to California. Eliza, please call the next public commenter.
Vanessa, are you connected and ready to proceed with your public comment?
Yes. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your summarized public comment.
Okay. Hi. I'm Vanessa Levy. I'm a resident of Philadelphia. I'd like to share some points against renewing Philly's contract with Covanta. First, ending Philly's needs of incineration is doable since the start of last year. Just under 38 percent of Philly trash went to incinerators. That 38 percent could be reduced in just a few years if the City was serious about zero waste strategies. And even if we didn't, there's adequate landfill space to accept that waste immediately. Pa has a bunch of landfill space, 43 landfills providing more than twice the disposal capacity that our state needs. We're not stuck without alternatives to incineration. Landfills are the lesser evil compared to burning trash first, then landfilling toxic ash. Second, incineration is expensive and will only get more costly over time. EPA is required to update their regulations for incinerators for every five years and hasn't updated them for 16 years. A federal court has forced EPA to finally update these regulations by the end of this year, which will likely be finalized late next year. In March, EPA presented that their new regulations could cost the industry between $52 million and $1.6 billion. This could mean over $60 million in upgrades just at Covanta's incinerator in Chester. Would Philly as a customer providing a third of their trash be on the hook for $20 million in passthrough costs? After all, that incinerator is missing two of the four major pollution control systems used at incinerators. While other new regulations are already forcing them to finally install the missing controls for nitrogen oxides that trigger asthma attacks, they will not be coming up to modern standards which are much more protected and incredibly costly. Even after installing these controls they've been missing for over three decades of operation, they will still have no controls to reduce emissions of the most toxic chemicals released, dioxins and mercury. I expect that EPA's updated regulations won't allow them to keep operating without such controls and any cost increase will push their prices higher than what we currently pay for landfill. I'd like to conclude by requesting that the Council pass the Waste Contracting for Clean Air Act. Thank you for holding space for these points to be heard.
No, thank you and thank you for being with us, and thank you for the information that you shared and for the recommendation for not only this Committee but for Council. Eliza, do we have anyone else here to provide for public comment?
Okay. And I'll ask the Tech Team also if you can just please try to see if we could connect Ogbonna Hagins.
Yes. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your summarized public comment.
Okay. Please proceed with your summarized public comment.
I'm a proud resident or former resident of Chester, Pa and a breast cancer survivor. Today I'm here to discuss the Covanta care initiative. (inaudible) Alyssa Wilds and Brittany Addison. As the CEO of CPMradio, I've had numerous discussions this March about how Covanta can possibly impact Chester. While many discussed the environmental aspects, I'm here to highlight the commendable actions they taken. They've helped my organization CMPradio Foundation. They have done autism walks. They have donated to City Teams, the Wesley House which is some of our homeless shelters. They've helped with Chester High's senior trips and career fair and multiple other organizations. That's all I have to say.
Well, thank you very much for your public comment.
Thank you. Eliza, do we have any further witnesses here to provide public comment?
Okay. And we weren't able to connect with Ogbonna Hagans?
The Tech Team said that they did try to contact him again, but it doesn't like anyone else was able to be reached at this time.
Okay. Thank you for the clarification. I just want to notate for the record, that multiple attempts were made to ensure that everyone could participate in the hearing this afternoon. Again, are there any further witnesses to provide testimony for this hearing? (No response.)
Is there anyone else here to testify on the resolution 17 whose name has not yet been called? (No response.)
Hearing none, are there any other questions or comments from members of this Committee? (No response.)
Hearing none, I want to thank you all, all the panelists and the witnesses for your participation today. We do value your opinion. I do see the hand raised of my colleague Councilmember Jim Harrity. Councilmember Harrity, you are recognized for comment.
I just wanted to say thank you to you, Chair, for doing this. And also, thank you to everybody who has submitted testimony and gave testimony. It's very enlightening and we are glad that so many people decided to attend and that shows that this is a very important issue, so thank you.
Thank you, and thank you for being here, Councilmember Harrity, and just for your commitment and all of your hard work in Philadelphia City Council. And I want to say before we conclude for the record that I too very much appreciate the work of all of the panelists who are here today no matter on what side of organization you're representing, I appreciate you coming. We know that this is a huge environmental injustice issue that we must solve and look at. And as we know, this is not something that this particular Council in this term had the opportunity to decide upon, but we know that in the next term we will be faced with this issue and we want to ensure that we have adequate information going into the next term to adequately address this issue, fully understand where we are as a city, how our operations are impacting our neighbors, not only in the city of Chester but regionally, and really figure out how we reduce waste in our stream and downstream as well. This is an exceedingly important issue to the health, the wellness, cleanliness of another regional partner in the city of Chester. This is something that we must continue to look for alternative ways around waste management and we intend to do just that as we move forward. So again, I want to thank you all for your willingness to be a part of this conversation. This is just the beginning. We will await the additional information in writing to this Committee and it will be disseminated to the members of the Committee so that we have full information as we move forward. So again, I thank you all for your participation today. We value each of your opinions. This will conclude the business before this Committee today, the Committee on the Environment. Thank you all so very much for your attention. Have a great day. (Hearing concluded at 3:19 p.m.) C E R T I F I C A T I O N I, hereby certify that the proceedings and evidence noted are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me in the foregoing matter, and that this is a correct transcript of the same. __________________________________ TANEHA CARROLL