NORTHUMBERLAND – Some Valley residents say they won’t stop until the proposed Encina plastics plant is gone. The group, ‘Save our Susquehanna’ is speaking out following Encina’s latest public meeting held this week.
Glenn Moyer of Northumberland says it’s a ‘rhetorical trick’ to think the plant will be for advanced recycling, “The American Chemical Council, that has been lobbying for this, is saying that they’re going to double or triple the production of virgin (recycled) plastics over the next couple of decades. How can that work if its gonna be a circular economy? And that just takes the earth over the limit.”
The company is scheduled to build the plant in the township starting at the end of the year and is in the final design phase for the project to comply with Point Township’s zoning requirements.
Sandy Heim of Sunbury, another ‘Save our Susquehanna’ member, is still concerned the plant has unproven technology, “Their prototype plant…we could not find it. We could not find any permitting for it. Well, Tuesday night (we found out) the prototype plant doesn’t exist. They have a lab somewhere. Their process is being tested in phases, which I feel we need to test the whole process.”
In a WKOK interview in March, Encina referenced a ‘Process Demonstration Union’ at its San Antonio, Texas facility. Encina says that allows the company to test different parts to build the full-scale model in Point Township.
Heim is also still concerned about chemicals going into the Susquehanna River, “Benzene is a Class A carcinogen, according to the EPA. Both acute and chronic exposure can cause a variety of ailments, including cancer and death. The mix xylenes, the toluenes, they cause a number of ailments. They haven’t been tested to be carcinogens yet. And all that stuff could end up in the Susquehanna River.”
You can hear more from the group, ‘Save our Susquehanna’ on the WKOK.com Podcast Page or wherever you listen to podcasts.
WKOK will reach out to Encina for their response.
