FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: October 1, 2026
Contact: Greg Sawtell (gr**@***lt.org)
Valerie Hsu (va*****@***lt.org)
TERMINATION OF CURTIS BAY ENERGY OPERATIONS IS RESULT OF SUSTAINED COMMUNITY-LED ORGANIZING AND RESEARCH
Baltimore, MD—South Baltimore residents are celebrating the Maryland Department of the Environment’s (MDE) termination of Curtis Bay Energy’s operational permits, declaring it a community victory achieved through sustained community organizing and research led by the South Baltimore Community Land Trust (SBCLT) and partners including Community of Curtis Bay Association (CCBA) and Dr. Chris Heaney at JHU Bloomberg School of Public Health. Through a settlement between MDE and Curtis Bay Energy, MDE is forcing Curtis Bay Energy to cease operation as an incinerator, ending decades of illegal emissions and mishandling of medical waste in South Baltimore.
South Baltimore, home to over 70 polluting facilities, is a historically overburdened “sacrifice zone” where residents deal with cumulative, damaging impacts of environmental pollution on their lives and health. “The hard work of SBCLT has given us hope for a future where Curtis Bay is no longer the Sacrifice Zone, but rather a healthy place for families to thrive and a bright future for historically environmentally oppressed communities,” says John Garofolo, Stoney Beach resident.
Since 2021, SBCLT has spearheaded a community-led research effort to document and monitor environmental harms caused by polluting industries in South Baltimore, including Curtis Bay Energy, the nation’s largest medical waste incinerator. In fall 2023, Curtis Bay Energy pled guilty to 40 counts of criminal violations after a four-year investigation by the Maryland Attorney General’s Office. However, SBCLT members in South Baltimore observed consistent recurrence of black smoke, prohibited by Maryland’s clean air standards, rising from Curtis Bay Energy, even after the polluting facility’s criminal sentencing. SBCLT launched a comprehensive community-led documentation effort that tracked Curtis Bay Energy’s continued violations of state and federal laws, and reported violations to MDE; community reporting has been cited repeatedly by MDE in its investigations of the facility. With monitoring data in hand, SBCLT led a coordinated campaign to urge medical institutions to divest from Curtis Bay Energy, resulting in Johns Hopkins Medicine, ChristianaCare, and others cutting ties with the incinerator. This monitoring data was used by University of Maryland researchers to determine that four pollutants alone from Curtis Bay Energy cause $36.9 million per year on average in health damages.
“Thank God for the work of the young people of SBCLT and CCBA for playing the watchdog and research role our government could be playing. This is a win by the people because our government is actually following the people’s lead,” remarks Angela Smothers, Mt. Winans resident.
The termination of Curtis Bay Energy’s incineration operations does not address environmental overburden in South Baltimore, nor does it rectify decades of damage already done to the community by the facility. Ms. Smothers continues, “But at the same time, think about how many lives were lost because we didn’t have SBCLT years ago, when residents’ warnings to the government about this same facility were ignored. And now I’m seeing it happen all over again with the giant incinerator next to me in Mt. Winans.”
The continued operation of the neighboring WIN Waste incinerator, Baltimore’s largest single source of air pollution, is an ongoing danger to public health in Baltimore City and beyond. WIN Waste’s air pollution permit is due for renewal this year, and MDE has already granted WIN Waste a tentative determination to renew. MDE is holding a public hearing on the draft permit tonight (Thursday, October 1 at 6PM). Community members will be attending the hearing to express their concerns and to urge MDE to deny this permit. Of chief concern is the 130,000 tons of toxic ash generated by WIN Waste each year and dumped at the Quarantine Road Landfill located in South Baltimore. While studies elsewhere have shown that dioxins, lead, and arsenic are known toxins in incinerator ash, the exact levels and composition of ash from WIN Waste remains unknown, as MDE has not granted community researchers access to study the ash.
“My concerns about being exposed to toxic ash driving through my community has been ignored, and now MDE wants to renew their [WIN Waste’s] permit,” says Ms. Smothers. “We need to make acting on the warnings given by residents who live near these facilities the norm, not the exception.”
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The South Baltimore Community Land Trust (SBCLT) is a community-led organization that creates permanently affordable housing, development without displacement, and a just transition to zero waste in Baltimore. We believe that people directly impacted by environmental, economic, and racial injustice must be in the lead to create development that regenerates our communities and our planet. SBCLT emerged out of Free Your Voice, a grassroots organizing effort led by Benjamin Franklin High School students who successfully organized against the construction of what would have become the nation’s largest waste-burning incinerator within a mile of their school. The students’ research on environmental pollutants and their cumulative impacts on overburdened communities led to the formation of the land trust, as a strategy to reclaim community ownership of land use in South Baltimore.
