To reduce air pollution that can trigger asthma attacks in children and other city residents, City Councilmembers Ed Reisinger and Mary Pat Clarke are introducing a resolution today urging state officials to lower nitrogen oxides limits for Maryland’s largest trash incinerator.
The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) is developing regulations to control pollution from incinerators, including the state’s biggest: the Wheelabrator BRESCO incinerator in South Baltimore, which emitted 1,141 tons of nitrogen oxides (NOx) last year that contribute to smog.
Reisinger and Clarke are introducing a resolution during tonight’s City Council meeting that calls on MDE to set a limit of no more than 150 ppm NOx every 24 hours, which is significantly less than the current limit of 205 ppm and consistent with the 150 limits set by Connecticut and New Jersey.
“Setting these lower pollution limits would be a first step in addressing the negative health effects of the city’s major incinerator,” said Reisinger, who with colleagues has been promoting “zero waste” initiatives to clean up Baltimore’s environment. “We can – and should – do better to reduce the smog-forming pollutants that are a danger to everyone living downwind.”
Clarke said: “Asthma is a major problem in the city, and Maryland should take every opportunity to reduce pollution that triggers asthma attacks. Lower pollution limits set by MDE would help everyone, while also reducing nitrogen pollution in the Chesapeake Bay.”
EPA has determined that the Baltimore area does not meet federal air quality standards for ground-level ozone (also known as smog), meaning that the state is obligated to take steps to reduce pollutants that contribute to smog, including NOx.
Leah Kelley, an attorney for the Environmental Integrity Project who has been investigating pollution from the incinerator, said: “The BRESCO incinerator is a real problem -- it released more nitrogen oxides air pollution per unit of energy in 2015 than any other large power plant in Maryland. Baltimore residents deserve pollution control upgrades at this aging and inefficient plant.”
The BRESCO incinerator is over 30 years old. It opened in 1985 and burns up to 2,250 tons of household waste a day, while also creating steam that generates up to 64 megawatts of electricity and is used to help heat buildings in downtown Baltimore.
“As a long-time resident of Westport, a community that serves as the host for BRESCO, I am faced with breathing in those toxins everyday,” said James Alston, a neighborhood resident and community leader. "I envision coming home one day and not seeing that smokestack and not breathing in and smelling those rancid fumes. Surely this is environmental racism at its worst."
The resolution by Councilmembers Reisinger and Clarke urges MDE to set a limit for incinerators at “no higher than the 150 ppm standard on a 24-hour basis that has been adopted by Connecticut and New Jersey and proposed in Massachusetts, or, if at all possible, significantly lower than 150 ppm in order to provide maximum air quality benefits to residents of Baltimore.”
