Update 3/30 @ 5pm: Since this post was originally published, three major stakeholders have announced that they will be terminating their contracts with Energy Answers to purchase electricity from the proposed incinerator in Curtis Bay. Baltimore City, Baltimore City Public Schools, and Baltimore County Public Schools initiated a domino effect that will likely drive the other 19 stakeholders to back out of the contract. Stay tuned for more updates on our campaign to bring fair development to Curtis Bay!
People living in the South Baltimore community of Curtis Bay are no strangers to heavy industrialization and failed development, but an organization called Free Your Voice--a student-led human rights committee of United Workers--is organizing to bring fair development to Curtis Bay instead. Join Free Your Voice in celebrating recent victories and building their movment at The Concert for Fair Development on April 25th at 3pm in Curtis Bay!
Residents of Curtis bay share the neighborhood with a massive coal export terminal, a medical waste incinerator, numerous production plants, and two coal-burning power plants only a few miles to the south -- one of which lacks modern pollution control technology. All of this industry pollutes the air and water in Curtis Bay, and an entire neighborhood called Fairfield was permanently evacuated years ago by the City of Baltimore when a pesticides plant there (FMC) made the land unsafe to live on.
Yet another company called Energy Answers has proposed to pollute the community by building the largest trash burning incinerator in the country on the site of the old pesticides plant and less than a mile from Benjamin Franklin High School and Curtis Bay Elementary. The incinerator would be able to burn 4,000 tons of waste per day including plastic, rubber, vinyl, and metal, in addition to regular household garbage. This is more waste than can be generated in Baltimore alone, so the incinerator would be forced to import trash from other states to operate. Furthermore, the incinerator is permitted by MDE to release 240 pounds of mercury per year, which could make it one of the largest mercury emitters in the state. Other pollutants include smog-forming NOx, lead, dioxins, and particulate matter which are linked to cancer, heart disease, increased risk of diabetes, aggravated asthma and other respiratory problems.
Fortunately, a grassroots group of young people from Curtis Bay called Free Your Voice (a Human Rights Committee of United Workers) is organizing to stop this toxic incinerator and replace it with fair development, and they're winning.
Due to delays brought on in part by Free Your Voice, Energy Answers has missed multiple construction deadlines, and they have been charged with a large fine for failing to purchase various pollution offset credits. And recently, an energy purchasing cooperative that represents 22 public entities committed to purchasing electricity from the incinerator recommended that all partners leave their contracts with Energy Answers because of the undue health and economic burden to Curtis Bay and the City of Baltimore.
The City of Baltimore is now exploring the option of building a 5-20 Megawatt solar farm designed by a Curtis Bay resident instead, which would ideally serve as both a local job creator and educational opportunity.
Energy Answers hasn't yet rescinded their proposal, so there is work left to be done, but the end appears to be near.