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If you still have a KN95 mask from the COVID-19 quarantine days, you might want to break it out.
By Denise Clay-Murray
In a lot of ways, Philadelphians have had a good time while celebrating America’s 250th Birthday in spite of the weather.
From heatwaves that have forced the cancellation of some activities and led to others being moved inside to storms that have led to postponed concerts and trees being ripped out of the ground by the roots, Mother Nature has been challenging Philadelphians in a variety of ways.
While Mother Nature isn’t entirely responsible for the latest bit of business from the heavenly skies — she got help from a knucklehead who decided to start a wildfire in Canada on this one — the weather, or to be more specific, the air, has been keeping people indoors.
As I write this, Philadelphia, like much of the East Coast, is under a cloud of smoke brought on by the aforementioned Canadian wildfire.
Because of this, the air quality, which is already kinda janky due to car traffic and other things, is at Code Red, which is only slightly better than Code Purple, which means, “Stay your behind in the house!”
Because of the city’s air quality index, which was rated at 267, or “unhealthy”, early Friday morning, trash collection was halted until Saturday morning, according to Carlton Williams, the city’s director of Clean and Green initiatives.
Pools and spraygrounds to help the kids stay cool when it’s a billion degrees outdoors were closed and residents were advised not to go outdoors unless they were wearing an N95 or KN95 mask.
(I’m pretty sure that folks still have some of those lying around from the COVID-19 lockdown days.)
But it could have been worse, I guess. Folks in the City of Chester woke up on Friday morning to an air quality index of 312, which is considered “hazardous.”
Now, for folks in Chester, that’s probably not an uncommon occurrence. That’s because the city is also the home of the Delaware Valley Incinerator. The incinerator is where Philadelphia sends its garbage to be burned. The city itself hasn’t had an incinerator within its borders since the Northwest Incinerator shut down in 1989.
At a press briefing this week, Williams announced that the city would likely be renewing its contract with Reworld, the incinerator’s parent company, despite entreaties from Chester residents for the city to stop sending trash to the facility.
To help assuage the concerns of the residents of Chester and people like Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, whose Don’t Trash Our Air act introduced in the last Council session would have banned the city from sending any of its trash to be burned, changes were made to the city’s request for proposals, Williams said.
“Our goal through this RFP process was to encourage competitive bidding from multiple waste disposal companies to offer solutions that provide environmentally sustainable and fiscally responsible proposals to consider that meets the City’s vision of a safer, cleaner, and greener Philadelphia,” Williams said in a statement. “We believe the RFP Process will lead to a contract that is financially sound, environmentally safe (according to PADEP standards) and includes the best option for the City to explore alternative methods for disposal.”
While storms scheduled for this weekend are expected to clear out the smoke from the Canadian wildfires, the fact that Philadelphia has been a longstanding asthma cluster is going to keep the discussion of the city’s trash and how we get rid of it front and center.
Council has to vote to accept the Reworld contract renewal. Since Council doesn’t return until September, I’m sure that discussion will be robust.
Disclaimer: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the article belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to the author’s employer, The Philadelphia Sunday SUN, the author’s organization, committee or other group or individual.
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