By Timothy B. Wheeler , tim.wheeler@baltsun.com|January 23, 2009
Accusing the state of failing to control industrial air pollution, environmental groups went to court yesterday to force the Maryland Department of the Environment to set new emission limits for a Baltimore trash incinerator.
The groups also threatened to sue Atlanta-based Mirant for allegedly spewing pollutants from one of its power plants in suburban Washington. The plant has been operating for years without a permit.
Activists said the actions were prompted by their frustration with the O'Malley administration for foot-dragging in dealing with pollution violations at some of the state's largest factories and power plants.
"We've just had it," said Eric Schaeffer, a former federal environmental regulator who now leads a Washington-based group, the Environmental Integrity Project. He said the two cases are part of a pattern in Maryland in which power plants and factories have been allowed to operate without pollution permits and up-to-date emission limits.
The BRESCO waste-to-energy incinerator in South Baltimore, which burns trash from Baltimore and Baltimore County, has been allowed to operate on an expired air pollution permit for more than a year, Schaeffer said. The state drafted but has not issued a new permit for the incinerator, operated by Wheelabrator Technologies. Activists say the permit would let the facility emit more pollution than the law allows.
Joining Schaeffer's group in filing the lawsuit in Baltimore Circuit Court were the Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper and Clean Water Action, as well as a Crofton resident who contends that the air he breathes is fouled by the incinerator's emissions. The Chesapeake Climate Action Network joined in the letter warning Mirant that it would be sued.
The vast majority of Marylanders live in communities where air quality is poor, Schaeffer noted. The Baltimore and Washington metro areas, and Cecil and Washington counties, experience unhealthful levels of ground-level ozone or fine-particle pollution, or both, at certain times of year, according to federal data. Smog can cause breathing difficulties and aggravate asthma and chronic bronchitis. Particle pollution also can cause respiratory problems and has been linked to heart attacks and premature deaths among people with lung and heart disease.
The activists said they had no evidence that the Baltimore incinerator is violating pollution limits, but monitoring data suggests that it might be emitting excessive amounts of nitrogen oxide, a smog-forming pollutant. The permit delay might be obscuring more fundamental problems, they contend.
