Residents Protest Plan to Ship NYC Trash to Chester by Rail

About 400,000 tons of trash is shipped from New York city to be incinerated in Chester already.

Chester residents Wednesday night protested a new plan to ship trash by rail into the city. The plan would haul 400,000 tons of trash from New York City over rail cars into Chester to be incinerated. Ugh. Just think how many Mets jerseys, wrappers from inadequate cheesesteaks and remnants of twee art projects from Brooklyn hipsters are in that trash!

Plenty of New York City trash is already incinerated in Chester — and, as company officials said at the Wednesday meeting — the amount of trash wouldn’t change under the new rail proposal. Currently, the trash arrives by truck.

The Chester Covanta facility, where the trash is incinerated, has been operating on the Chester waterfront since 1992. “At maximum output, the plant generates approximately 80 megawatts of electricity, 90 percent of which is sold to the local utility,” the company writes on its website. “The plant not only meets the municipal solid waste disposal and energy production needs of Delaware County, but also provides capacity for up to 500,000 tons of additional waste each year from surrounding counties.”

“I want to live. And to me, murder is murder, whether it is with a gun or with chemicals,” resident Sheila Hyland said at the meeting. “I have asthma, I was diagnosed with sarcoidosis, I have all kinds of allergies.” Nearby residents also complained, obviously, of the smell.

[CBS 3]