2 Council Members Plan To Introduce Resolution Urging Emissions Cut At Incinerator.
Two Baltimore City Council members say they will introduce a resolution at Monday’s council meeting asking state officials to lower emissions limits for the city’s (and state’s) largest trash incinerator.
Ed Reisinger and Mary Pat Clarke’s resolution would call on regulators to set a limit of no more than 150 ppm of those gases every 24 hours, on par with Connecticut and New Jersey.
The current limit is 205 ppm.
“Setting these lower pollution limits would be a first step in addressing the negative health effects of the city’s major incinerator,” said Reisinger, who with colleagues has been promoting “zero waste” initiatives to clean up Baltimore’s environment.
“Asthma is a major problem in the city, and Maryland should take every opportunity to reduce pollution that triggers asthma attacks," Clarke said.
"Lower pollution limits set by MDE would help everyone, while also reducing nitrogen pollution in the Chesapeake Bay.” The EPA, the council members say, has found the Baltimore area isn’t meeting federal air quality standards for smog, so the state is obligated to set lower emissions levels, and activists say that the BRESCO incinerator is a good place to start.
“The BRESCO incinerator is a real problem — it released more nitrogen oxides air pollution per unit of energy in 2015 than any other large power plant in Maryland," Leah Kelley, an attorney for the Environmental Integrity Project, said in a statement.
Ironically, given the air pollution concerns, the incinerator is the destination for would-be water pollution: the trash and debris collected by the trash wheel at the mouth of the Jones Falls.
The incinerator also burns trash from Baltimore City, Baltimore County and other localities.