Maryland officials crowed back in 2023 about hitting a medical waste incinerator with a long history of pollution violations with one of the largest environmental criminal fines in Maryland history – a $1.75 million penalty.

But after Curtis Bay Energy’s guilty plea and settlement, South Baltimore residents were still reporting emissions incidents at the facility.

The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE), they said, was dismissing their concerns.

“‘Give the new ownership time’, the MDE staff told us. ‘The frequency of the black smoke is going down,’” recalled Greg Sawtell,  a member of the South Baltimore Community Land Trust (SBCLT).

“But there shouldn’t be any of these incidents. It seemed like, after MDE issued that fine in 2023 it was like, We’re done here. Environmental justice achieved.”

Months after MDE filed another suit against the company, residents wondered why there were no enforcement actions.

So a network of community members, including the Land Trust, the Community of Curtis Bay Association, residents from nearby Anne Arundel County and researchers from Johns Hopkins, mounted a concentrated campaign to document the pollution from the faded yellow metal building at 3200 Hawkins Point Road.

“We pulled out our cell phones and started recording it. We got lots of other testimony from workers and community members. Then we took the extra step to get trail cams to do continuous recordings,” Sawtell recalled. “And we were able to show that these releases and fires were not just one-offs, but practically continuous.”

Today the community got the news they hoped for. Sawtell said he got a call from MDE Director of Air and Radiation Chris Hoagland saying that the incinerator is shutting down.

“On Thursday, they’re going to be announcing a consent order, which includes a settlement agreement by the company to stop functioning as an incinerator,” Sawtell said.

“The timeline is like six to eight months,” he noted. “They’ll lose their their permit, so they won’t operate as an incinerator anymore but they’ll continue to operate at a lower capacity as a transfer station.”

“We were able to show that these releases and fires were not just one-offs, but practically continuous”  – Greg Sawtell, South Baltimore Community Land Trust.

Sawtell called it “a huge victory and a remarkable example of an on-going community investigation that actually panned out to produce concrete change.”

“They had lots of reason to give up, but the most overburdened communities of Maryland persevered and won,” he said.

Previous Brew Coverage

• Baltimore medical waste incinerator still pollutes, burning trash from as far away as Florida (8/9/24)

• South Baltimore medical waste incinerator hit with a $1.75 million state fine and penalty (10/17/23)

UPDATE I: 10/1/26 MDE press release:

“The settlement, described in a consent decree that resolves a complaint for multiple air pollution violations and filed on behalf of the department by the Office of Attorney General Anthony G. Brown, also requires the company to pay a $600,000 civil penalty.

This follows years of problems at the facility that include an earlier guilty plea in a criminal case by the previous owner, multiple smoke events and more than $1 million in previous penalties.

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

Curtis Bay Energy is one of the largest medical waste incinerators in the United States. In 2023, the previous owner pleaded guilty and agreed to pay one of the largest fines in an environmental criminal case in state history. Later that year, MDE entered into a settlement agreement and consent order with the facility.

That order resolved various violations by requiring the company to pay a $132,500 penalty and implement operational improvements related to its handling of solid waste.

“For too long, the burning of medical waste has forced Curtis Bay residents to inhale smoke and other emissions,” said Attorney General Brown. “This agreement shuts down the incinerator for good, improving air quality for a community that has carried the weight of industrial pollution for generations.”

In March 2024, MDE filed a complaint against Curtis Bay Energy in Baltimore City Circuit Court, alleging multiple air pollution violations. Inspections, photos and videos from community members and scientists, and emissions records over several months documented multiple operational deficiencies that led to emissions in excess of permitted standards, visible and unpermitted emissions of air pollution, and, in one
case, a fire.

That complaint asked the court to order the facility to make repairs and to impose a financial penalty. MDE alleges operations at the facility have resulted in additional violations since the filing of that complaint.

The consent decree establishes a ramp down period for the facility to transition from incineration of medical waste to a waste transfer station with much lower thresholds for the amount of waste it can accept.

The company is required to cease all incineration operations within 90 days of the issuance of a modified refuse disposal permit.

UPDATE II: 10/1/26 from Curtis Bay Energy:

“Curtis Bay Energy has decided to cease incineration activities at its Baltimore facility,” spokesperson Maggie Clemmons said. “The incinerator is among the oldest waste treatment facilities in the U.S. and is at the end of its useful operating life. We are coordinating with local authorities on a safe, orderly wind-down of the facility. This decision reflects the market realities of transitioning away from incineration services for medical waste management. We will continue to seamlessly service our customers through our network of treatment facilities along the East Coast.”