Advocates for South Baltimore residents have filed a civil rights complaint with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on behalf of those suffering from pollution caused by Maryland’s largest trash incinerator.
South Baltimore Community Land Trust (SBCLT) filed the Title VI administration complaint on May 28, 2024, regarding the Baltimore City Department of Public Works’ (DPW) 10-year solid waste management plan.
The complaint alleges that DPW did not adequately plan a transition from the municipal waste incinerator formerly known as the Wheelabrator, which they state contributes to unequal health risks faced by those living in the Mt. Winans, Westport, Cherry Hill, Lakeland, Brooklyn, and Curtis Bay neighborhoods. The facility is now run by Baltimore Refuse Energy Systems Company (BRESCO).
“We’ve already seen our three former neighboring communities of Fairfield, Wagner’s and Hawkins Point be involuntarily displaced because of city planning decisions to concentrate more and more polluting waste infrastructure in South Baltimore,” said Shashawnda Campbell, Environmental Justice Director for SBCLT. “Residents tireless organizing over the past decade has led to our officials promising they’ll do everything they can to end trash incineration and build new zero waste infrastructure, but we still aren’t seeing it where it counts—in policy and budgets.”
SBCLT is represented by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) and the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP). Title VI can be used to end federal funding for entities engaged in discriminatory practices. Each of the above-named communities is categorized as disadvantaged by the White House Council on Environmental Quality’s Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool, indicating they’re above the 90th percentile for environmental burdens.
In this complaint, Baltimore DPW is said to be operating the largest stationary source of industrial air pollution in Baltimore (BRESCO) in one of Baltimore’s most disadvantaged communities. Health risks from the facility include “mercury, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and fine particulate matter. These emissions contribute to respiratory issues, heart conditions, and other serious health problems,” reads the press release announcing the complaint.
The CBF commissioned a study in 2017 that found BRESCO’s emissions cost Maryland and neighboring states $55 million in human health problems annually. The study concluded that for children, senior citizens, and others with lung sensitivities, living near the BRESCO incinerator is akin to living with a smoker. Heavy truck traffic to and from the incinerator add to the pollution.
“Even though our youth and community members have literally created a zero-waste plan and started businesses to prove we can do it, our city gave us another 10-year solid waste plan that will keep putting the same environmental injustice on us here in South Baltimore,” said Angela Smothers, a lifelong Mt. Winans resident. “I won’t continue to sit by while my friends and neighbors suffer from so many health issues worsened by having that giant white smokestack standing over us spitting out toxins into the places we love the most.”
The impact hits waterways as well. 2011 emissions data shows that “BRESCO’s NOx emissions deposited an average of 6,570 pounds per year of nitrogen pollution directly into the Chesapeake Bay. Excess nitrogen in the Bay fuels harmful algal blooms that can lead to low-oxygen dead zones. These emissions make it harder for Maryland to meet requirements to reduce pollution to the Bay, putting the burden on taxpayers rather than the polluting facility,” according to the press release.
SCBLT holds the City of Baltimore responsible for keeping its zero-waste commitments, and they say these commitments are not prioritized in DPW’s solid waste plan.
“Baltimore’s 10-year solid waste management plan completely disregards the pervasive environmental injustices suffered by the people of South Baltimore. EPA must investigate,” said Taylor Lilley, CBF Environmental Justice Staff Attorney. “South Baltimore’s environmental justice status reflects the high concentration of harmful activities in the area—not only BRESCO’s waste incineration, but landfill operations, wastewater treatment, coal transfer activities, and more.”
“Trash incinerators and landfills produce unacceptable levels of toxic and climate-harming pollution, and they are often sited in marginalized communities,” said Leah Kelly, a Senior Attorney with EIP. “We cannot continue relying on these facilities as our primary waste disposal options, as Baltimore City has in this plan. We must plan a transition to better alternatives; that is part of what South Baltimore residents are seeking in this complaint.”
