LISTEN: Encina ‘Committed’ to Point Township; Considering Options

POINT TOWNSHIP, NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY – Despite a big setback, Encina says it still wants to construct its Circular Manufacturing Facility in Point Township and is confident it will have only positive impacts to the region.

This comes as Encina was unanimously denied by the Point Township Zoning Board Wednesday night to construct its 80-foot tall facility, with the township board saying the maximum allowable building height is 50 feet.

Encina Chief Sustainability Officer Sheida Sahandy, "We’re gonna see if we can make this work. We’re committed to doing the project and doing it in Point Township if at all possible. I think its gonna take us a little bit of time to go back to the drawing table."

Encina says it wanted to build that tall a facility in order to reduce the footprint of the site.

Encina also answered many recent concerns, such as this type of plant never being used before. Sahandy says there is a Process Demonstration Union (PDU) at its San Antonio, Texas facility that allows the company to test different parts and scales to build the full-scale model planned for Point Township.

"So it gives us important information for building the full scale model. The equipment that we’re gonna be using has largely been in use for decades in other industries. There's been a tremendous amount of modeling done. So, it's true it's a bigger scale than what we have in San Antonio, but that's on purpose and for good reason."

As for the 2.3 million gallons of water that would be drawn from the Susquehanna River daily, Sahandy says the water would be used to wash the plastics without detergent, and to cool the plastics, "I read somewhere the water's gonna be used to melt the plastics. That's not one of the uses we make of the water. All of the water coming back out will go through a membrane bioreactor system, which is gonna take out any contaminants that might be in the water. It's gonna be tested for being at the appropriate temperature, anything you want to be sure its not going to be in the water."

She says Encina will be started the permitting process with the Susquehanna River Basin Commission soon, as well as air permits. Encina also says its international investors, which they say don't include Chinese involvement, are meant to create 100% American jobs.

Before suffering the zoning setback, the plant was set to begin site preparation this summer and open in 2026. It's unknown if that timeline will now change.

Encina says it has many FAQ's on its website. Here more from Encina from On The Mark above.

Written by WKOK Staff