In 2021, the CSX Currtis Bay filled the smoke after an explosion at the Cartis Bai Coal Terminal. Twitter photo by Baltimore’s firefighters IAFF Local 734.
Michael Middleton and Dr. Saikobi J. By Wilson
The author is at the Center for Community Engagement, Environmental Justice and Health for the Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health in South Baltimore respectively.
The South Baltimore is a sacrifice area. South Baltimore – Cherry Hill, Westport, Mount. Six communities formed by Gonans, Lakeland, Brooklyn, and Curtis Bay used a Maryland Department (MDE) screening tool for the top 3% environment for the environment.
Curtis Bay, most in the state, Maryland’s poster is the child for environmental injustice. Curtis Bay House oil tank near the industrial area, an waste water treatment plant, chemical plant, landfill, the country’s largest medical waste consumer, and more. Heavy diesel trucks continuously on residential roads. Wagoner’s talk and the Fairfield community, who were once the neighbors of Curtis Bay, had gone to the east. Those inhabitants accepted purchases to leave between 1980 and 2011 after a series of chemical spreads and accidents.
Given the burden of pollution of Curtis Bay, local activists were expecting, when MDE began to support the “Environmental Justice” bill, their concerns would be given priority when not fully addressed. The Environment Justice Movement has recognized the right to self -determination as a major principle to long -affected communities. MDE held a hearing session at Curtis Bay in 2023 to share its concerns, there was a possibility that the agency’s bill would be liable.
But this did not happen. Instead of prioritizing the problems identified by Maryland’s most difficult-thread communities, MDE went into a different way. The agency’s bill allows MDE to use pollution burden to influence decisions for the list of permits, which is in the Maryland Act for 30 years with only one change during that time. More upset, the list excludes air pollution permits to a large extent, which is one of the top concerns for Curtis Bay residents.
And this is not just a few air pollution permits that are exposed by the bill. The bill does not cover any permit to operate the already existing air pollution source, no matter how big or dirty it is. No waste in Westport, not four miles north of Curtis Bay. Curtis Bay not four miles or two major coal plants of nearby medical waste Inknerer. And of course there is not a large -scale coal export terminal that sits near the houses in Curtis Bay, which the residents have asked to address the state for more than a decade.
The bill also does not cover air permits for some of some of the largest newly built sources. Perves are issued by the Maryland Public Service Commission to create energy generators such as power plants and power producers. These permits are also not covered by the bill.
Some current activists of Curtis Bay were first motivated to speak to the country’s biggest waste consumed by a 2009 proposal. The multi-year battle against this proposal provided one of the leaders of a Goldman Environment Award campaign in 2016, with international recognition. But if the same consumer was now proposed, the current bill will not address its air permit.
Is the current bill a step in the right direction and can the missing air pollution permits be added later? No. This bill will direct the other types of permit decisions to direct the agency resources, which are directly associated with the health of the South Baltimore residents.
The bill includes all types of permits for discharge of surface water pollution and Given the strong impact of the Chasapi Bay Watershed Movement in Maryland, it is likely that the agency resources will largely go on these issues. Water quality matters, but focusing on air quality does not suit the practice related to current science or other states and cities addressing environmental justice.
Among the 21 pollution factors who assess MDE which communities suffer the most from environmental loss (called “EJ score” when combined with demographic data), about half only relates to air pollution risk. Only one surface is related to water pollution, but the bill preference surface water and not air quality. MDE is mainly identifying overburden communities with air pollution, but is not trying to solve the problem.
MLAs should not pass this bill (House Bill 24/Senate Bill 96). Instead, MDE should meet with residents of environmental justice communities so that what a bill can look like for the next year. This should be a community-driven process with residents of the affected neighborhood selecting priorities addressed in the bill. And we should return to 2025 to finish the job.
Maryland’s most overgrowth communities require a real environmental justice bill with them on the driver’s seat, not only for observers.
The House Bill is for hearing in the Environment and Transport Committee at 1 pm on Wednesday. The Senate Bill will be heard in education, energy and environment committee on 5 March.
Re -published