Residents in Chester are not pleased with the new deal that will ship tons of New York City's trash to the local waste facility.

Covanta's Delaware Valley incinerator plant on Highland avenue in Chester, PA, landed a 20-year deal with New York City's Department of Sanitation. Under the new agreement, Covanta will use trains to transport more than 800,000 tons of waste annually from New York to be burned and converted into energy. 

On Wednesday, June 11, the company attended a planning board meeting where environmentalist and community members voiced concern about the health risks associated with the waste facility.

"It's the idea of bringing in more trash in an area that has residents, simple as that it shouldn't be done," resident Carole Burnett told CBS Philly. Covanta insists the amount of trash would remain the same, only the transportation method is different. 

The facility plans to process more than 3,500 tons of solid waste each day. "We rather see the facility closed than to see more tons of trash brought into the community, right across the tracks from people's homes. It's a serious health problem," Mike Ewall, founder of Energy Justice Network told NBC 10.

There are more than 100 active incinerators in the U.S. and although the method is a popular choice for waste management, incinerators release thousands of pollutants (heavy metals and carcinogens) that contaminate air, soil and water. People who live near or work at incinerator plants can be at higher risk for cancer, birth defects, heart disease and lung cancer.