Why is Covanta Trash Burning a Problem?

Some Quick Facts

Names: Delaware Valley Resource Recovery Facility, Covanta / Reworld Delaware Valley
Address: 10 Highland Ave, Chester, PA 19013 (map)

Owners

1991 – April 1997:  Waste Resource Energy Inc. (Westinghouse)
May 1997 – May 2005:  American Ref-Fuel
June 2005 – April 2024:  Covanta Energy
April 2024 – present:  Reworld (same company; Covanta changed their name)

Descriptions:

Resource Recovery Facility  (FYI, resources are destroyed; little is recovered)

Trash-to-steam  (this is an improper PR term; it’s much more than steam)

Waste-to-energy (WTE)  (again, an improper PR term; every ton becomes ash & air)

Energy from waste (EfW)  (this is pollution, not literally turned into energy, see more)

Thermomechanical Treatment Facility (TTF)  (this is Reworld’s April 2024 rebranding of incinerators)

Trash incinerator  (EPA recognizes ONLY this term as meaning the same as its legal term: Municipal waste combustor)

Size:

90 MW (small for a power plant); Can burn ~3,500 tons/day (largest in U.S.)

This size is still misreported to shareholders and PA DEP as 2,688 tons/day, even though they’ve burned much more consistently since 1997.

Largest Trash Incinerators in the U.S. (by size)

No other trash incinerator in the U.S. has more than 4 boilers.

State	City	Name	Burners	Tons/Day
PA	Chester	Reworld Delaware Valley	6	3,510
FL	St. Petersburg	Reworld Pinellas	3	3,150
VA	Lorton	Reworld Fairfax	4	3,000
HI	Honolulu	Honolulu Resource Recovery Venture (HPOWER)	3	3,000
NJ	Newark	Reworld Essex	3	2,800
MA	West Wareham	SEMASS Resource Recovery Facility	3	2,700
NY	Westbury	Reworld Hempstead	3	2,671

Covanta Lacks Basic Pollution Controls

Covanta Lacks Basic Pollution Controls

Covanta’s incinerator in Chester uses the fewest pollution control devices of any incinerator in Pennsylvania and the fewest of any in their fleet of 32 remaining incinerators. (Source: March 2009 Environmental Protection Agency inspection report, available at www.ejnet.org/chester/pollutioncontrol.html)

IT LACKS:

• Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) or Selective Non-Catalytic Reduction (SNCR) to reduce the nitrogen oxides (NOx) that trigger asthma attacks.
  • SNCR recently installed, cutting NOx from 128 ppm to ~90 ppm; SCR would be 30-40 ppm
• Carbon injection to remove additional toxic metals and dioxins.

IT HAS:

• Spray Dryer Absorber (scrubber) – injects lime to reduce acid gases, heavy metals and organic pollutants
• Fabric Filter (baghouse) – captures particulate matter (soot)

Other Pennsylvania incinerators have more/better controls:

For a chart of what the air pollution control system acronyms mean, see www.ejnet.org/chester/pollutioncontrol.html

Nearly all of Covanta’s 39 incinerators have these pollution controls.  Several have 5-6 pollution control devices.  Chester’s has just two.

No new incinerator could be built today without these protections.  Bringing this old plant to modern standards would be cost-prohibitive.

In March 2009, when an EPA inspector (Ms. Horgan) asked Covanta’s Gene Bonner why they don’t have the pollution controls that their other plants have, Covanta responded that “it costs a lot of money” and would create “operational issues.”

Covanta (now “Reworld”) is a Top Air Polluter

Their trash incinerator in Chester is the:

#1 industrial air polluter in Chester City, in Delaware County, and in the entire 7-county region surrounding Philadelphia.

All five trash incinerators in this region are among the region’s top seven industrial air polluters.

(Source: PA Department of Environmental Protection Agency Air Emissions Reports: http://cedatareporting.pa.gov/reports/powerbi/Public/DEP/AQ/PBI/Air_Emissions_Report)

Reworld Delaware Valley’s Air Emissions

Pollutant (in pounds except CO2e)	2022 Emissions*	Rank in DelCo	Health Effects
Global Warming Pollution (in tons of CO2 equivalents)	914,738	4	Extreme weather, disease, crop damage, species extinction
Nitrogen Oxides	2,320,920	1	Asthma attacks, chronic respiratory disease & stroke
Carbon Monoxide	673,400	1	Headaches, dizziness; increases lifetime risk of heart disease
Sulfur Dioxide	392,820	1	Triggers asthma attacks; chronic respiratory and heart diseases; stroke
Particulate Matter	126,080	4	Heart attacks, stroke, irregular heartbeat, aggravated asthma, decreased lung function, difficulty breathing
Hydrochloric Acid	37,740	1	Irritates eyes, skin, and nose, damages lungs
Fine Particulate Matter (PM2.5)	15,140	5	Same as above, but worse, gets deep into lungs and into blood stream
Volatile Organic Compounds	13,700	15	Eye, nose and throat irritation, headaches, loss of coordination and nausea, liver, kidney and central nervous system damage, cancer
Mercury	51	1	Damage to nervous, digestive, & immune systems, lowers IQ
Nickel	20	3	Allergy, cardiovascular and kidney diseases, lung fibrosis, lung and nasal cancer
Lead	17	2	Damages nervous system and kidneys, lowers IQ, increases likelihood of antisocial behavior
Cadmium	5	2	Kidney disease; lung cancer
Arsenic	4	2	Lung, skin, bladder, and liver cancers; irritation of skin and mucous membranes; affects brain and nervous system
Chromium (VI)	4	2	Lung cancer, shortness of breath, coughing, and wheezing

Covanta vs. DELCORA

There are two major polluters in Chester.

Who is the bigger air polluter – the Covanta trash incinerator, or the DELCORA sewage sludge incinerator a block away in Chester?

Some claim that Covanta is less of an issue and that people should be more focused on DELCORA.  Both are a problem, but there’s no question who the larger air polluter is, as the following slides show.

Currently, the issues before us are:

• The county continuing to feed Covanta 31% of their waste stream
• DELCORA’s privatization and a planned doubling of the sludge they burn if they start taking the eastern half of the county’s sewage

Covanta vs. DELCORA

Here is an estimate of the greenhouse gases generated by each facility in tons of CO₂ equivalent [20-year impact]. Noted, also, is an estimate of how much of these gases are the result of Delco trash being sent to the incinerator.

Shifting to tons of Hydrochloric Acid, we have the following information:

Next, for tons of Nitrogen Oxides or “NOx”, not to be confused with Nitrous Oxide (laughing gas from your dentist’s office):

Next for tons of fine particulate matter, sulfur oxides and volatile organic compounds:

And finally for toxic metals:

Debunking Covanta’s Emissions Claims

Covanta’s Area Asset Manager, Don Cammarata says…

“99.9+% of what comes out of the stack are normal components of air, including water vapor, nitrogen, oxygen, and CO₂. The remaining constituents – see table – are well below allowable limits set by State and Federal regulators that have demonstrated protection of human health and the environment”

CO₂ is STILL a pollutant that causes global warming, and the “small” percentages of emissions that are air pollutants are enough to make them a top air polluter in the city, county, and region.

Read our full rebuttal at: www.delcoej.org/pdf/CovantaRebutted.pdf

The Smokestack Story

Covanta says: “We monitor continuously for all of our CEM parameters…” and claims the are below federal emissions standards, but let’s see what they AREN’T saying.

Continuous Emissions Monitors (CEMs) tell the whole story. There is rigorous enforcement by the state. Emissions limits are directly related to health & safety impacts.

• Covanta/Reworld is not always within permit limits — notice that they are averaging across years.  (Fines are not enough.)
• They cannot meet modern limits, at least for NOx.
• Emissions limits are stricter for new facilities and for those in other countries.
• EPA is supposed to update standards every 5 years and hasn’t done so for 16 years now. Permit limits are not based on health and safety, but are technology-based.
• Permit limits are concentration-based. Bigger means they can be dirtier.
  • A 500 ton/day incinerator would be permitted to release 7 times less than what Covanta’s 3,500 ton/day incinerator in Chester can legally emit.
• Covanta has rigged stack tests AND continuous monitoring.
• They do NOT monitor for lead, mercury, dioxins, radiation, fine particulate matter, etc. because there is no safe dose of these pollutants.
• Only 3 pollutants are monitored continuously. Emissions are underestimated when they are only tested once a year by their OWN contractor.

A Bit about Continuous Emissions Monitors

CEMS is only generally used for 3 pollutants: sulfur oxides (SOx), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and carbon monoxide (CO) plus opacity, oxygen and temperature.

• Hydrochloric acid emissions 62% higher
• Actual dioxin emissions 32-52; 460-1,290 times higher
• Technology now exists to continuously monitor:
  • Ammonia (NH₄)
  • Carbon Dioxide (CO₂)
  • Hydrogen Sulfide (H₂S)
  • Acid Gases:
    • Sulfuric Acid (H₂SO₄)
    • Hydrofluoric Acid (HF)
    • Hydrochloric Acid (HCl)
  • Products of Incomplete Combustion (PICs):
    • Dioxins & Furans
    • Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs)
    • Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)
  • Particulate Matter (PM)
  • Metals:
    • Antimony (Sb)
    • Arsenic (As)
    • Barium (Ba)
    • Cadmium (Cd)
    • Chromium (Cr)
    • Lead (Pb)
    • Manganese (Mn)
    • Mercury (Hg)
    • Silver (Ag)
    • Nickel (Ni)
    • Zinc (Zn)
    • …and more

You can learn more about CEMs at: www.ejnet.org/toxics/cems

Environmental Violations at Chester City Facilities (June 2005 – August 2021)

Covanta is the leading source of violations in this time period.

State Permit Violations

Covanta’s incinerator in Chester is the 2nd worst in the state for permit violations. Covanta operates all of the state’s six trash incinerators except for the Wheelabrator Falls incinerator in Bucks County.

Incinerator	County	Air violations since 2010	Air violations since 2017	ALL violations since 2017
Plymouth	Montgomery	59	29	32
Chester	Delaware	44	22	23
Lancaster	Lancaster	35	16	17
York	York	27	12	12
Falls	Bucks	10	4	7
Harrisburg	Dauphin	9	1	9

Health Impacts

Covanta claims that health studies of communities around trash incinerators show nothing to worry about.  However, they cherry pick the studies that didn’t find any connection, and it can be hard to find such connections in studies when pollutants and people move, among other factors.  For references to the studies that do find a connection to the listed health impacts, see this factsheet on incinerator health studies.

Covanta says: “incinerators have been studied comprehensively for health risk”

Fact: Not much in the U.S. and not comprehensively at all.

People living near incinerators have an increased risk of…

• All types of cancer, including:
  • Stomach
  • Colorectal
  • Liver
  • Renal
  • Lung & pleural
  • Gallbladder
  • Bladder
  • Non-Hodgkin lymphoma
  • Leukemia
  • Soft-tissue sarcoma
• Respiratory diseases & symptoms
• Cardiovascular diseases
• Urinary diseases

Source: www.energyjustice.net/incineration/healthstudies.pdf

Childhood Asthma Hospitalization is 3 TIMES the PA Rate

For those under 18 years of age, for 2010:

Asthma Capitals (2025 Update)

Top Cancer Cities

Philly is now #2 in cancer incidence among the counties hosting the 10 largest U.S. Cities

Delco’s cancer rate is worse.