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Harrisburg, PA — Moms Clean Air Force gathered with community leaders and public health experts at the Belle Town Hall on Wednesday, April 29 to urge West Virginia leaders to safeguard communities from petrochemical and plastics industry buildout.
Communities across West Virginia are already exposed to pollution from existing petrochemical facilities that harm public health and accelerate climate change. At the same time, the plastics supply chain is exposing families to toxic chemicals, including microplastics and PFAS, that are increasingly linked to serious health risks.
Clean Seas, a California-based company and subsidiary of Clean Vision, Inc., is currently seeking permit approval from the WV Department of Environmental Protection for a $65 million industrial plastic waste processing facility in Belle, West Virginia that generates hazardous wastes and other harmful byproducts.
Advocates and experts are calling for protections. Proposed expansions would lock Pennsylvania into decades of additional plastic production, more fracked fossil fuel infrastructure, and greater pollution for frontline communities.
Watch the recording of the press conference HERE to hear from public health experts, environmental advocates, and community members dealing with the impacts firsthand.
QUOTES FROM SPEAKERS:
“The lack of transparency regarding what pyrolysis really is – incineration — is a disservice to our community,” says Lani Wean, West Virginia Field Organizer for Moms Clean Air Force. “No amount of greenwashing or sugarcoating can cover up the destructive impacts that plastic incineration has on the surrounding communities. Residents near Quincy and Belle deserve the chance to make a fully informed decision on what is being built in their backyards. At the meeting held here last night, community members expressed deep concerns about the lack of transparency from the company on community safeguards, the low economic viability of Clean Seas’ parent company, Clean Vision, and the possible conflict of interest of the company’s legal council being Speaker of the House Roger Hanshaw. Attendees also questioned the increased risks to their health and outdoor recreation industry due to toxic air pollution from this facility.”
“EPA pollution control standards for pyrolysis and gasification incinerators have been regulated for three decades, but now they want to strip away the rules, allowing corporations to police themselves and leaving our communities to foot the bill with our health,” says Martec Washington of the Black Appalachian Coalition. “These federal rollbacks have a direct impact on our families and communities; we are talking about our children here. We are talking about kids breathing in toxic chemicals while they’re sitting in class, reading at the public library, or playing out on the football or soccer field.”
“Clean Vision’s significant debt combined with negative shareholder equity has shown the company to bring false promises of economic development,” says Morgan King of the West Virginia Citizen Action Group. “Belle, and West Virginia, deserve better. Our tax dollars should not subsidize these potentially dangerous and pollutive experiments.”