Curtis Bay Energy will end incineration of medical waste under agreement with state

State officials were hailing the announcement that the troubled Curtis Bay Energy facility will stop incinerating medical waste at its South Baltimore site in order to settle a Maryland Department of the Environment lawsuit charging the company with repeated air pollution violations.

Curtis Bay Energy is one of the largest medical waste incinerators in the country. Under the proposed consent decree, filed Wednesday in Baltimore City Circuit Court, the site will continue operating as a medical waste transfer station, but at sharply reduced levels. Curtis Bay’s current permit allows the company to accept 62,050 tons of waste a year, and burn as much 150 tons a day. That would be cut to no more than 20,000 tons a year, with no incineration, under the settlement.

The company also agreed to pay $600,000 in penalties that will be divided between MDE’s clean water fund and its clean air fund. If there are any pollution violations while the shift away from incineration is under way, the company agrees to pay $5,000 to $7,000 per day per violation.

“This a major win for a community overburdened by pollution,” Maryland Environment Secretary Serena McIlwain said in a prepared statement. “We won’t accept operations that put public health and safety at risk and leave our most vulnerable communities paying the price.”

Attorney General Anthony Brown, whose office negotiated the settlement, said that “the burning of medical waste has forced Curtis Bay residents to inhale smoke and other emissions” for too long.

South Baltimore medical waste incinerator will pay one of largest environmental fines in state history after improper disposal

“This agreement shuts down the incinerator for good, improving air quality for a community that has carried the weight of industrial pollution for generations,” he said in the joint statement with McIlwain.

The changes will take place no later than 90 days after the company submits, and the state approves, an application to change its permit from an air quality permit, allowing it to burn medical waste, to one acting as a transfer station for that waste, which would be subject to steam sterilization.

The consent decree, if accepted by the court, would end a 2024 lawsuit in which MDE charged the company with six counts of air quality violations. The state has added seven more charges since then. As part of the settlement, Curtis Bay Energy “denies the factual and legal assertions in the Complaint” and the additional pollution charges.

The deal comes three years after previous owners of Curtis Bay Energy pleaded guilty to criminal charges of improper disposal of biohazardous materials, and paid a $1 million fine, one of the largest in state history. It also paid $750,000 then into a fund to pay for environmental improvements in the community around the plant.

The Curtis Bay area is dotted with scores of industrial sites, including a CSX coal transfer facility, that residents say place an undue environmental burden on the area.

Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City), whose district includes Curtis Bay community, said the settlement and the end of incineration there comes after “years of violations and continued concerns from residents.”

“Curtis Bay residents …. documented what they were seeing in their own neighborhood, worked with scientists to track emissions, and kept pressing for action. Their photos and videos ultimately became part of the evidence behind the State’s enforcement case,” he said in a statement posted to social media.

He thanked state officials for the deal but said he was “especially grateful to the residents and community organizations … who refused to let these concerns be ignored.”

“Curtis Bay has carried the burden of industrial pollution for generations. This agreement is a meaningful result for a community that has fought for years,” his statement said.

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Courtesy of Maryland Matters