Move Your Ash
Carroll Citizens for Sensible Growth




August 1, 2007
Southcentral Pennsylvanians,

Here is our big issue from now to September 12th, and we REALLY need your help. This company,
American Ash Recycling of PA (AAR of PA), has been spreading "treated incinerator ash” anywhere
they can, almost entirely in Southcentral PA. We are the only state that this is happening in, and this is
their only facility in the entire western hemisphere, here in good old York, PA.  The parent company
(Environmental Capital Holdings) is owned by foreign investors, apparently with little concern for our
communities.  You can really make a difference on this one. Comments will only be taken until
September 12th, so please don't hesitate to act. Your kids and future generations are counting on
you.  Please read this information, call or email for more info, then write to the DEP at the address
given below.

AAR of PA is trying to get a permit to spread raw incinerator ash as construction fill. We believe we can
stop this, however the other practices described here are nearly as bad, and have a chance of being
approved by PA DEP. I spoke with many Health Risk experts about this. None of them could believe
that PA DEP or EPA would allow this.

American Ash Recycling of PA received a permit from PA DEP in 1997 to use incinerator ash treated
with phosphoric acid as a fill material. Since that time this material has been spread under
playgrounds, school parking lots, golf courses, residential houses, businesses, and anywhere they
could put it, with dubious results. At one point York City Councilman Joe Musso found children playing
in it at a construction site. The material has caused problems on at least seven sites, and tens of
thousands of tons had to be removed at the contractors’ expense of well over half a million dollars.
Though the company's test results show the material as passing above 90% of their EPA leaching tests,
they are only testing for 10 metals and dioxin. We don't know what all is in this stuff. In June 2000,
radioactive Cesium rods were found.

AAR of PA has had violations for piling 360,000 tons of this stuff next to York city, placing the stuff too
close to public and private wells, spilling phosphoric acid, and who knows what else. When they give
this stuff to our local contractors, it frequently doesn't perform right, costing our local companies
millions of dollars for disposal and from lawsuits. On top of that, the contractor's insurance companies
have paid an unknown amount for basements collapsing, walls and floors buckling, and other product
failures. This ash is no good for construction and PennDOT said the only thing it is good for is
embankments, basically piling it up along the roadsides and covering it with soil! They continue to trick
local folks into taking this crap so they won't have to pay to dispose of it. The kicker is that when they
put it on a property, they don't have to tell the next purchaser that it is even there! What's going to
happen to York's and PA's property values when word gets around that this stuff might be under any
property?

Now the company wants to renew their ten year permit to process the material upwind of an
elementary school, and to use the material as fill, even at schools and playgrounds. We are asking
everyone to become more informed about this and we thank you for anything you can do. Particularly,
the DEP needs to hear that we won’t be their guinea pig for the rampant spreading of dangerous
metals and toxins.

The address to write to is Ronald C. Hassinger, Chief, General Permits/Beneficial Use Section, Division
of Municipal and Residual Waste, Bureau of Waste Management, P. O. Box 8472, Harrisburg, PA 17105-
8472, (717) 787-7381.

Sincerely, Michael Helfrich    717-779-7915    LowSusRiver@hotmail.com
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Links to Carrollcitizens pages and reports on ASH and AGGRITE

Carrollcitizens ASH page

Carrollcitizens ASH REPORTS page
York Daily Record August 2, 2007
Hearing sought on ash company
American Ash Recycling Corp. 's permit is up, and local officials want a say.
By TERESA ANN BOECKEL Dally Record/Sunday News
York Dally Record/Sunday News
Article Launched:08/02/2007 06:06:35 AM EDT

Aug 2, 2007 - York City Council President Cameron Texter mailed a letter Wednesday to the state
Department of Environmental Protection, asking for a hearing on American Ash Recycling Corp.'s
10-year permit renewal.
READ News article HERE
Picture Page of local ASH
site in Franklin Township