Energy & Livelihoods: Wheelabrator Baltimore

When it comes to iconic landmarks, Paris has the Eiffel Tower and London has Big Ben. Here in Baltimore, we have the Wheelabrator smokestack (a can’t miss while driving on interstate 95). The incinerator is a waste to energy plant that burns trash to bring city residents electricity. I live about 4 miles away from the plant and see this landmark regularly. Before researching more about the plant’s impact on the city, I had an idea of the type of information I would find but ended up being more concerned and actually kind of disappointed in some of the decisions the city made regarding the plant. I’ll explain, but first let me at least try and point out some of the benefits of the Wheelabrator…

Proudly displayed outside the plant is a sign that hits on my first point. The plant is run on a renewable source of energy. The plant collects garbage from both inside Baltimore City and the surrounding counties to burn trash and generate energy. We’re always creating garbage and it doesn’t appear as if that will change anytime soon. With that garbage, the plant produces enough energy to displace 880,000 barrels of oil and 268,000 tons of coal each year. It can regularly power nearly 50,000 homes. The plant also keeps garbage from going to landfills, which is worth noting since the two landfills near Baltimore are expected to reach capacity in 5-10 years at the current rate (it's worth noting that the landfill will reach capacity whether the incinerator was burning trash or not). Landfills create more methane gas which is twice as potent a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide. The plant also provides steam to the downtown heating loop, helping offset fossil fuel use to some 230 businesses (including the Baltimore Ravens stadium). So overall, the plant is run on renewable energy and helps offset fossil fuel use. Both good things.

With that said…the plant is still extremely toxic. It releases thousands of pounds of greenhouse gases and toxic substances into the atmosphere every year, including carbon dioxide, hydrochloric acid, formaldehyde, manganese, lead, and mercury. Oh, and don’t forget nitrogen! In fact 47 tons of nitrogen oxide fall into the water of the Bay every year from the incinerator alone. Nitrogen, being a key substance created by these types of plants, can cause dead zones in the Bay by fueling algae blooms. If you saw my Conowingo Dam post, you may remember that these algae blooms block sunlight from reaching submerged aquatic vegetation and deplete the water of oxygen (very not good).

The Wheelabrator burns around 2,250 tons of garbage each day. It’s responsible for releasing 82% of the sulfur dioxide and 64% of the nitrogen oxide that is produced from the city. It is the city's largest source of pollution right after transportation emissions.

For many environmentalists, there was hope near the end of 2020 that the plant would finally close. Not only was the incinerator's contract with the city about to end, but BRESCO (who runs the plant) admitted that they would not be able to meet the strict emission standards passed in the 2019 Baltimore Clean Air Act. Knowing the contract would not be renewed if they didn’t meet new standards, they sued the city and were able to overturn many of the emission requirements. After all appeals were made, the city agreed to a new contract with the incinerator (behind closed doors with no stakeholder involvement) for another 10 years. Environmentalists felt defeated, but there was a silver lining to the new contract. First, the Wheelabrator could no longer sue the city for not providing them with enough trash. In the old contract they were able to do so, and even did! Second, the plant is forced to commit $40 million dollars by the end of 2023 to upgrading technology that reduces emissions. A new plan by environmentalists includes starving the incinerator of trash and pushing for expanded recycling and composting operations in the city.

As I end this post, I’d like to leave you with something to remember as you pass by the iconic smokestack off i-95. As you drive by (going north), look away from the incinerator and take a peak to the right. You’ll see the Westport neighborhood, an underserved, majority Black and minority, low-income community - which is not uncommon for communities that are near toxic plants like this. In the Westport area and the surrounding communities, there are more than a dozen sites declared Brownfields by the EPA. These Brownfields are sites that are so saturated by decades of industrial waste that they require special cleanup efforts. When you have toxic emissions blowing towards your community 24/7 every day of the year, you are forced to deal with many of these negative effects. This has terrible impacts on the residents of the community.

Residents suffer from high rates of asthma and chronic respiratory disease. The life expectancy of babies born to families in the area is less than 70, a decade less than other areas of the state. People in Westport are also twice as likely to die from lung cancer than residents in the northern neighborhoods of Baltimore. It’s estimated to cost anywhere between $21-$55 million a year in healthcare expenses to treat people impacted by the plant. I began this post trying to point out the benefits of the plant, but it feels difficult to justify them when so many people have suffered because of it.

The plant’s contract with the city is extended for another 10 years until the end of 2031. Do you think we’ll have improved and actual clean, renewable technology by then to make this sort of waste-to-energy source obsolete? Think we’ll have reduced our waste enough that the incinerator isn’t even worth running? What do you see for the future of Baltimore and it’s energy sources? Let me know your thoughts.