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Settlement of Complaint for Air Pollution Violations Includes $600,000 Penalty, Requires Medical Waste Incineration to Cease
BALTIMORE, MD – Attorney General Anthony G. Brown today announced that the incinerator operations at the Curtis Bay Energy facility in South Baltimore will come to an end under a settlement reached between the company and the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE), filed on behalf of MDE by the Office of Attorney General.
The settlement resolves a complaint for multiple air pollution violations and requires the company to pay a $600,000 civil penalty. This follows years of problems at the facility that include an earlier guilty plea in a criminal case by the previous owner, multiple smoke events, and more than $1 million in previous penalties.
“For too long, the burning of medical waste has forced Curtis Bay residents to inhale smoke and other emissions,” said Attorney General Brown. “This agreement shuts down the incinerator for good, improving air quality for a community that has carried the weight of industrial pollution for generations.”
Curtis Bay Energy is one of the largest medical waste incinerators in the United States. In 2023, the previous owner pleaded guilty in a criminal case brought by the Office of the Attorney General’s Environmental and Natural Resources Crimes Unit and agreed to pay one of the largest fines in an environmental criminal case in state history. Later that year, MDE entered into a settlement agreement and consent order with the facility. That order resolved various violations by requiring the company to pay a $132,500 penalty and implement operational improvements related to its handling of solid waste.
“This is a major win for a community overburdened by pollution,” said Maryland Department of the Environment Secretary Serena McIlwain. “We won't accept operations that put public health and safety at risk and leave our most vulnerable communities paying the price.”
In March 2024, the Office of the Attorney General and MDE filed a complaint against Curtis Bay Energy in Baltimore City Circuit Court, alleging multiple air pollution violations. Inspections, photos and videos from community members and scientists, and emissions records over several months documented multiple operational deficiencies that led to emissions in excess of permitted standards, visible and unpermitted emissions of air pollution, and, in one case, a fire.
That complaint asked the court to order the facility to make repairs and to impose a financial penalty. MDE alleges operations at the facility have resulted in additional violations since the filing of that complaint.
The newly filed settlement requires the company to shut down incineration activities after receiving authorization under its refuse disposal permit to continue operations as a solid waste transfer station with a significantly reduced limit on the amount of material it can process.
The company is required to cease all incineration operations within 90 days of the issuance of a modified refuse disposal permit.
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