Elcon Appeal In Falls Moving Through Courts (ICYMI)

FALLS TOWNSHIP, PA — Eight months after Falls Township supervisors voted down plans for a chemical and pharmaceutical waste treatment plant, the company behind the plans still hopes to have its day in court.

Elcon Recycling Services filed an appeal to the unanimous vote by supervisors on April 30.

On Monday, Falls Township attorney Mike Clarke told supervisors that, following a hearing last month, the court has provided a schedule in the case that could see it in a courtroom by this spring.

Elcon has 30 days to submit a brief in the case. Once it is submitted, Falls will then have 30 days to submit its own brief. From there, Elcon would have 10 days to submit a rebuttal, Clarke said.

Once the briefs have been submitted, oral arguments would be scheduled in court. Clarke said he anticipates that to be in April or early May.

Israel-based Elcon had proposed a chemical and pharmaceutical waste treatment plant on the former site of U.S. Steel at the Keystone Industrial Port Complex.

The plan was roughly six years in the making and officially sent to the township last January. It was looking to build on a 23-acre parcel of land and to treat up to 193,000 tons of hazardous and pharmaceutical waste per year.

Neighbors and environmental groups fought the plans, citing concerns over air and water pollution. In its appeal, Elcon called the supervisors' vote "capricious and arbitrary."