Eddystone residents raise concerns over Camden Iron move

Camden Iron & Metal Inc., and the mountain of crushed scrap at the foot of the Platt Memorial Bridge in South Philadelphia, is inching closer to a move to Eddystone.

But not without concerns from some neighbors about traffic, noise, possible pollution, and chemicals associated with metal shredding and recycling.

The Eddystone Borough Council on Wednesday asked the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority not to release a $31.1 million state grant to help Camden Iron develop a pier on the Delaware River until public health and environmental risks are assessed.

The port authority board went ahead and voted for a resolution to support Camden Iron in relocating operations to Eddystone, but it made release of the money conditional on the company's getting all the necessary permits from government agencies.

Camden Iron chief executive officer Joseph Balzano Jr. said the move would bring $307,000 in tax revenue to Eddystone annually and 175 to 185 jobs. Camden Iron plans to hire 25 employees a year. The company has 27 job openings now "that we've made available to Eddystone residents," Balzano said.

Eddystone resident Dan Arrison, speaking for a dozen residents who attended the meeting, said air quality was already poor in Eddystone as a result of industry. He said 80 percent of Delaware County's "top polluters," including Exelon Corp. and Liberty Electric Power L.L.C. generating stations, are along the Industrial Highway, Route 291.

"We're just asking for a full understanding of what will be coming into our borough," said Arrison, a fifth-grade teacher.

Camden Iron officials will meet with the community Monday at 5 p.m., at Lighthouse Hall in Eddystone, and plan to bring traffic, noise, and air-quality engineers to speak. They will answer residents' questions. "I'll stay all night," Balzano said.

On Jan. 28, Eddystone Borough Manager Francie Howat wrote Camden Iron that its business shredding scrap metal was a "permitted use" for the site, which is zoned heavy industrial.

Based on that letter, Camden Iron bought the Foamex property at 1500 E. Second St. for about $13.5 million. The deal closed March 17.

Balzano said he expected that the permitting process and construction of a wharf could take two years.

Camden Iron - purchased in 2007 by European Metal Recycling Ltd. - has been looking since 1998 to combine the metal-shredding operation at 2600 Penrose Ave. with its business shipping a million tons of scrap iron a year out of Beckett Street Terminal in Camden.

Scrap is now trucked to Camden from Penrose Avenue.

The Foamex site, with seven buildings, is a good fit because of its size, access to water and rail, and is zoned heavy industrial. "It has good proximity to the city and good highway access," Balzano said.

In Delaware County, the metal crushing will move indoors.

Scrap will no longer be heaped along a highway - an eyesore greeting visitors driving into the city on the Platt Bridge from the airport.

Camden Iron has bought state-of-the art shredders, now in storage, waiting for the new location. "Our shredders will be indoors with sound-baffling systems. We are below the ordinance with our existing shredder," Balzano said. "And we are twice the distance from residents that we are now" in South Philadelphia.

Still, Eddystone residents want to know more about what the 63-acre site will be used for, and whether Camden Iron plans eventually to expand into plastics recycling and bring more than the 175 trucks a day anticipated now on the local roads. A borough engineer has been working on the design of an access road, which would be the main entrance to the site.

"If Camden Iron & Metal gives a transparent proposal and works with the borough, they could be a reasonable neighbor," Arrison said, responding a PRPA board member. "But we need all the information. Camden Iron needs to come to the table, have an open forum, fulfill the requests of the Borough Council," and satisfy local and state environmental concerns.