EPA opens investigation into Baltimore waste plan

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will move forward with a civil rights complaint from a south Baltimore community related to the Baltimore Refuse Energy Systems Company’s (BRESCO) trash incinerator on Russell Street, CBS News reports.

The South Baltimore Community Land Trust says exhaust from that incinerator is full of toxic chemicals that impact the health and quality of residents in the area.

The complaint targets the city of Baltimore’s Ten Year Solid Waste Management Plan, saying it doesn’t do enough to divert trash from the incinerator. The complaint says toxic chemicals produced by the plant are disproportionately impacting Black and Hispanic communities in south Baltimore. A civil rights complaint has been filed under Title VI, which states people cannot be discriminated against in any program or activity funded by the federal government.

“The EPA is investigating this as a possible civil rights issue because there’s a lot of people of color and lower-income people that are breathing in this particulate matter, mercury and other very dangerous pollutants from the Baltimore trash incinerator,” says Tom Pelton, spokesperson for the Environmental Integrity Project.

The complaint says there are 279 sites within the immediate area in south Baltimore that report to the EPA with 70 industrial sources of air pollution regulated by the state in the impacted area.

The city of Baltimore recently renewed its contract with BRESCO, the operator of the incinerator, despite Mayor Brandon Scott previously saying he planned to close the plant.