South Baltimore Advocates Fight Air Pollution Permit for Wheelabrator Trash Incinerator
Maryland must protect residents from toxic emissions and ash.
Environmental and community advocates are speaking out this week against a key air pollution permit currently up for renewal at Baltimore’s Wheelabrator trash incinerator (formerly known as BRESCO). Wheelabrator is Baltimore’s leading source of air pollution and the largest trash incinerator in Maryland. For decades, this facility has severely threatened the health and wellbeing of nearby communities and poisoned South Baltimore’s air and water.
At a public hearing on Oct. 1, and in comments submitted to MDE this week, the South Baltimore Community Land Trust (SBCLT), Environmental Integrity Project (EIP), Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF), Clean Water Action (CWA), and other community partners requested the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) deny renewal of the facility’s operating permit. Or failing that, issue a stronger permit than the one proposed to address its lack of continual monitoring requirements, noncompliance with existing federal regulations, and poor ash handling controls during transportation.
A 2024 public health study found that the incinerator caused an estimated $53.8 million in health damages in Maryland and Washington, D.C.
Advocates have long fought for stronger protection against the Wheelabrator incinerator. Currently, MDE is considering renewing the facility’s Title V air pollution permit, which is intended to regulate harmful toxic emissions that come from the incinerator as a major source of air pollution.
“We as a community know what it means if we don’t show up. We know it is a life-or-death situation when it comes to this incinerator,” said Shashawnda Campbell, environmental justice director at SBCLT. “It is the number one source of air pollution in Baltimore City. We need MDE and our state to do better. This is not okay, and we’re here to demand better.”
What Are the Major Health Risks?
Under its current Title V permit, MDE only continuously tests emissions for some of the pollutants emitted by Wheelabrator on a sporadic basis. This approach fails to ensure that the incinerator is consistently complying with its emissions limitations.
We deserve independent evidence, transparency, and protection that allows us to know what we’re being exposed to.
Carlos Sanchez, Lakeland resident and youth organizer with the South Baltimore Community Land Trust
MDE should require Continuous Emissions Monitoring Systems (CEMS), which consistently test health-harming emissions including mercury, hydrogen chloride, and particulate matter. This technology, approved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), would do a much better job detecting what’s coming out of the incinerator’s stacks at all times.
While there isn’t yet technology available to test air emissions for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), this is another growing threat that is associated with burning municipal waste. MDE must further consider how to protect nearby communities from this harmful pollutant.
The permit must also include provisions for incinerator ash handling at the site. Currently, the draft permit includes minimal standards for controlling fugitive emissions. Without oversight, ash can escape over the property line where it poses a threat to nearby residents.
“One of my biggest concerns is the incinerator ash,” Carlos Sanchez, Lakeland resident and youth organizer with SBCLT said at the public hearing. “Can MDE verify that this ash is safe? Not only when it’s being produced but when it’s being transported, handled, and disposed of, potentially exposing people in our communities? We deserve assurance that everything is safe. We deserve independent evidence, transparency, and protection that allows us to know what we’re being exposed to.”
What Are Community Members Concerns?
Dozens of residents showed up to urge MDE to deny the permit at a public hearing in Curtis Bay on Oct. 1. Many speakers repeated one simple message: “I am concerned about whether BRESCO ash is safe to breathe. Deny the permit.”
Others told stories about their struggles with asthma, or loved ones who died from lung cancer. There are well-documented public health consequences for residents living in this highly industrialized area. Asthma-related hospitalization rates in South Baltimore communities are roughly three times the national average. Deaths from chronic lower respiratory disease are approximately 75 percent higher than in the rest of Baltimore, and overall life expectancy is as much as seventeen years shorter than in Baltimore’s most prosperous neighborhoods.
“MDE has both the power and duty to issue a stronger permit than the one proposed,” said Leah Kelly, senior attorney at EIP. “This Title V permit does too little to track and reduce the pollution burden on nearby communities and to safeguard public health and the environment.”
What Are the Environmental Concerns?
The air pollution emitted from Wheelabrator eventually falls, polluting roads, yards, and waterways—including the Baltimore Harbor and Patapsco River, which both feed into the Chesapeake Bay.
According to 2024 emissions data, the incinerator emitted about 643 total tons of nitrogen oxide (NOx). NOx emissions deposit nitrogen in local waterways, where excess amounts can fuel harmful algal blooms and lead to low-oxygen dead zones in the Bay. 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.
Part of a Larger Issue
South Baltimore has far too long been overburdened by harmful industrial pollution and environmental injustices. The area is almost completely surrounded by industrial use, including the Wheelabrator trash incinerator, CSX coal terminal, and Quarantine Road Landfill.
According to the Maryland EnviroScreen Tool, Wheelabrator is just north of a census tract with an “Environmental Justice (EJ) Score” of 100: the highest in the state. EJ Scores are a metric developed by MDE to identify communities especially vulnerable to a high combination of pollution exposure.
When considered all together, these facilities put an overwhelming burden on South Baltimore residents, their air, and their waterways. A 2024 public health study found that the incinerator caused an estimated $53.8 million in health damages in Maryland and Washington, D.C.
“This permit simply does not protect Baltimoreans, even after years of advocacy from the community,” said CBF’s Environmental Justice Staff Attorney Taylor Lilley. “It fails to meet federal standards and in turn fails to protect the residents of South Baltimore who have borne the brunt of the cumulative pollution burden in the city for decades, often worsened by malfeasance at this facility.”
An Ongoing Battle
Just before MDE’s public hearing on Wheelabrator, the agency announced that it will close operations of the nearby Curtis Bay Energy medical waste incinerator. This was a huge win for the community. But Curtis Bay and surrounding neighborhoods are still plagued by industrial pollution and emissions from the facility.
Trash incineration is not clean or renewable energy, and it’s not the best way to manage our waste. In fact, it’s the worst
Jennifer Kunze, Maryland Co-Director with Clean Water Action
It’s clear Baltimore is still heavily relying on the Wheelabrator incinerator to deal with its trash, despite promises from Baltimore City to transition away from the facility, and pleas from the community for Baltimore to meaningfully invest in composting infrastructure to reduce waste. Just last month, Baltimore County renewed its contract with the incinerator for another 10 years, even after advocates urged the County to wait until the Title V air pollution permit was finalized.
“Trash incineration is not clean or renewable energy, and it’s not the best way to manage our waste. In fact, it’s the worst,” said Jennifer Kunze, Maryland Co-Director with CWA. “Maryland’s legislature and Governor Moore recognized this when they eliminated incineration from Maryland’s Renewable Portfolio Standard last year. Now, it’s time for the state to deny the permit or at least make them clean up their act.”
Wheelabrator pays extremely low disposal fees to Baltimore City and County to dispose of its toxic incinerator ash, compared to other large companies. For example, Baltimore City charges $135 per ton for large commercial haulers, but only charges Wheelabrator $25 per ton for its ash. In total, at 200,000 tons of ash per year, Wheelabrator is only paying about $5 million to haul ash to the Quarantine Road Landfill, instead of the $27 million other haulers would pay.
In May, SCBLT, CBF, Clean Water Action, and several community organizations submitted comments on an MDE Title V air pollution permit for the Quarantine Road Landfill, which is permitted to hold 21.43 million tons of municipal solid waste, including ash from Wheelabrator. Roughly 44 percent of the waste landfilled is ash. Advocacy groups voiced similar concerns with ash handling and lack of oversight in that permit and are awaiting MDE’s final decision.
Also of note in 2024, SBCLT, represented by CBF and the EIP, filed a Title VI Civil Rights complaint with EPA challenging Baltimore’s failure to plan a transition away from trash incineration.
MDE’s work protecting South Baltimore is far from complete. SBCLT, EIP, CBF, CWA, and other partners urge the state to deny renewal of Wheelabrator’s Title V permit, and insist that if it must go forward, the permit not be issued until it complies with applicable federal standards and adequately protects Baltimore’s people and environment.
