An ongoing battle over plans to build a McDonald's at 43rd and Market streets reached a new phase on Tuesday, when the West Philadelphia community activist group Neighbors Against McPenntrification won an appeal filed to the Philadelphia License and Inspection Review Board.
Tuesday's appeal will prevent McDonald's from cleaning contaminated soil on the construction site using a process called soil vapor extraction.
During the spring of 2001, traces of tetrachloroethylene -- a carcinogenic pollutant -- were discovered in the ground soil at 43rd and Market streets. In order to get rid of the contaminant, McDonald's attained permits from the Philadelphia Air Management Service and the Health Department to use the soil vapor extraction cleaning method.
Vapor extraction involves removing the carcinogenic chemical evaporates from the soil, running them through a carbon-filtered air pollution control device and then releasing the vapor into the air.
However, after performing a pilot trial on soil vapor extraction at the McDonald's site last August, some members of the surrounding West Philadelphia community "became ill," according to a press release provided by the Neighbors Against McPenntrification.
"When they did the pilot experiment in August, a lot of us got sick," Leader of Neighbors Against McPenntrification Larry Falcon said. "When they first started remediating the soil, the air that came into our windows looked like volcanic ash."
Instead of using McDonald's proposed method for cleaning the soil, the Neighbors Against McPenntrification recommending using a process called thermal desorption instead.
"We have concluded, based on information and advice, that the vapor extraction system is not a safe remediation for an inner-city neighborhood," read the Neighbors Against McPenntrification's appeal to the L&I; Board.
"We therefore ask for a repeal of this decision, and appeal, based on research, for the safest method, called thermal-desorption. We believe this is the safest method, as it is done off the site," it added later.
This alternative method is speculated to release lower levels of nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxides into the air, and could be done either on or off of the McDonald's site. According to the appeal that was filed, thermal desorption generally costs $200 to $300 per ton of soil.
Falcon said that he was pleased with the verdict of Tuesday's appeal.
"We had a tremendous community turnout and the city didn't do their homework, which means that right now McDonald's can't run the vapor extraction process," Falcon said.
Because the Neighbors Against McPenntrification case is still under appeal, city officials declined to comment on Tuesday's events.
From the time McDonald's purchased the property on 43rd and Market streets in October 1999, it has faced a number of challenges that have delayed construction.
Previously, Falcon gathered 125 signatures from community members in a petition against the construction, where nearby residents bemoaned the "sights, smells, and traffic" that the new McDonald's would bring with it.
Falcon and his neighbors also blamed McDonald's for destroying their backyard gardens, many of which had grown over the years onto the property on 43rd and Market streets.
Moreover, among members of Neighbors Against McPenntrification there is a general sense of distrust felt toward McDonald's, not to mention an overall sense of opposition to having their neighborhood developed further.
"McDonald's has driven good, taxpaying citizens from the community out," West Philadelphia resident Richard Rogers (CAS '73) said. "I have no faith in McDonald's -- I don't trust them to be people of their word."
