Wheelabrator Baltimore is a waste-to-energy incinerator located in the Westport neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland and is operated by Wheelabrator Technologies, a subsidiary of Energy Capital Partners. It has an electric generation capacity of 64.5 megawatts. [1] On October 2, 2018, ECP announced the agreement to sell Wheelabrator Technologies to Macquarie Infrastructure Partners, a subsidiary of Macquarie Group. [2]
In operation since 1985, the incinerator's tall white smokestack that reads "Baltimore" is considered to be a distinctive landmark for travelers on nearby Interstate 95 and the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. Formally known as BRESCO (Baltimore Refuse Energy Systems Co.), the incinerator has been plagued by controversy over air pollution and for operating with an expired air pollution permit. The ash produced at the incinerator is then used for the city's Quarantine Road landfill at Hawkins Point. [3]
In 2010, several environmental groups, including the Washington, D.C. based Environmental Integrity Project (EIP), the Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper, the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, and Clean Water Action have successfully intervened in the Wheelabrator's permit-renewal process, which prompted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to order the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) to reinforce the plant's pollution-monitoring necessities. [4] [ dead link ]
According to a 2011 report by the EIP, the Wheelabrator Incinerator produces more mercury, lead, and greenhouse gases per hour of energy than each of the state's four largest coal-fired power plants. [5] In addition, the incinerator produces nitrogen oxide emissions, which can contribute to smog and pollution in the Chesapeake Bay. EIP staff attorney Jennifer Peterson stated:
This is excellent news for cleaner air and cleaner water in Maryland. Without monitoring of emissions, we are really flying blind—neither the public nor MDE can be sure what's coming out of the Wheelabrator stacks. Emission monitoring helps make sure that companies are actually complying with the law. We are pleased that EPA intervened here to do the right thing and hope that MDE will fix this permit and take steps to ensure that emissions monitoring of mercury, particulate matter, and other harmful pollutants is as accurate as it can be. [6]
In 2021, the Wheelabrator Incinerator was Baltimore's "single largest standing source of air pollution." [7] [8]
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it began operation on December 2, 1970, after Nixon signed an executive order. The order establishing the EPA was ratified by committee hearings in the House and Senate. The agency is led by its administrator, who is appointed by the president and approved by the Senate. The current administrator is Michael S. Regan. The EPA is not a Cabinet department, but the administrator is normally given cabinet rank. The EPA has its headquarters in Washington, D.C., regional offices for each of the agency's ten regions, and 27 laboratories. The agency conducts environmental assessment, research, and education. It has the responsibility of maintaining and enforcing national standards under a variety of environmental laws, in consultation with state, tribal, and local governments. It delegates some permitting, monitoring, and enforcement responsibility to U.S. states and the federally recognized tribes. EPA enforcement powers include fines, sanctions, and other measures. The agency also works with industries and all levels of government in a wide variety of voluntary pollution prevention programs and energy conservation efforts. The agency's budgeted employee level in 2023 is 16,204.1 full-time equivalent (FTE). More than half of EPA's employees are engineers, scientists, and environmental protection specialists; other employees include legal, public affairs, financial, and information technologists. Many public health and environmental groups advocate for the agency and believe that it is creating a better world. Other critics believe that the agency commits government overreach by adding unnecessary regulations on business and property owners.
Incineration is a waste treatment process that involves the combustion of substances contained in waste materials. Industrial plants for waste incineration are commonly referred to as waste-to-energy facilities. Incineration and other high-temperature waste treatment systems are described as "thermal treatment". Incineration of waste materials converts the waste into ash, flue gas and heat. The ash is mostly formed by the inorganic constituents of the waste and may take the form of solid lumps or particulates carried by the flue gas. The flue gases must be cleaned of gaseous and particulate pollutants before they are dispersed into the atmosphere. In some cases, the heat that is generated by incineration can be used to generate electric power.
Landfill gas is a mix of different gases created by the action of microorganisms within a landfill as they decompose organic waste, including for example, food waste and paper waste. Landfill gas is approximately forty to sixty percent methane, with the remainder being mostly carbon dioxide. Trace amounts of other volatile organic compounds (VOCs) comprise the remainder (<1%). These trace gases include a large array of species, mainly simple hydrocarbons.
Municipal solid waste (MSW), commonly known as trash or garbage in the United States and rubbish in Britain, is a waste type consisting of everyday items that are discarded by the public. "Garbage" can also refer specifically to food waste, as in a garbage disposal; the two are sometimes collected separately. In the European Union, the semantic definition is 'mixed municipal waste,' given waste code 20 03 01 in the European Waste Catalog. Although the waste may originate from a number of sources that has nothing to do with a municipality, the traditional role of municipalities in collecting and managing these kinds of waste have produced the particular etymology 'municipal.'
Waste-to-energy (WtE) or energy-from-waste (EfW) is the process of generating energy in the form of electricity and/or heat from the primary treatment of waste, or the processing of waste into a fuel source. WtE is a form of energy recovery. Most WtE processes generate electricity and/or heat directly through combustion, or produce a combustible fuel commodity, such as methane, methanol, ethanol or synthetic fuels.
Design for the Environment (DfE) is a design approach to reduce the overall human health and environmental impact of a product, process or service, where impacts are considered across its life cycle. Different software tools have been developed to assist designers in finding optimized products or processes/services. DfE is also the original name of a United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) program, created in 1992, that works to prevent pollution, and the risk pollution presents to humans and the environment. The program provides information regarding safer chemical formulations for cleaning and other products. EPA renamed its program "Safer Choice" in 2015.
The United States produced 5.2 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2020, the second largest in the world after greenhouse gas emissions by China and among the countries with the highest greenhouse gas emissions per person. In 2019 China is estimated to have emitted 27% of world GHG, followed by the United States with 11%, then India with 6.6%. In total the United States has emitted a quarter of world GHG, more than any other country. Annual emissions are over 15 tons per person and, amongst the top eight emitters, is the highest country by greenhouse gas emissions per person. Because coal-fired power stations are gradually shutting down, in the 2010s emissions from electricity generation fell to second place behind transportation which is now the largest single source. In 2020, 27% of the GHG emissions of the United States were from transportation, 25% from electricity, 24% from industry, 13% from commercial and residential buildings and 11% from agriculture. These greenhouse gas emissions are contributing to climate change in the United States, as well as worldwide.
The Dickerson Generating Station is an 853 MW electric generating plant owned by NRG Energy, located approximately two miles west of Dickerson, Maryland, on the eastern banks of the Potomac River.
The Clean Air Act (CAA) is the United States' primary federal air quality law, intended to reduce and control air pollution nationwide. Initially enacted in 1963 and amended many times since, it is one of the United States' first and most influential modern environmental laws.
To protect the environment from the adverse effects of pollution, many nations worldwide have enacted legislation to regulate various types of pollution as well as to mitigate the adverse effects of pollution.
The environmental effects of paper are significant, which has led to changes in industry and behaviour at both business and personal levels. With the use of modern technology such as the printing press and the highly mechanized harvesting of wood, disposable paper became a relatively cheap commodity, which led to a high level of consumption and waste. The rise in global environmental issues such as air and water pollution, climate change, overflowing landfills and clearcutting have all lead to increased government regulations. There is now a trend towards sustainability in the pulp and paper industry as it moves to reduce clear cutting, water use, greenhouse gas emissions, fossil fuel consumption and clean up its influence on local water supplies and air pollution.
Municipal solid waste (MSW) – more commonly known as trash or garbage – consists of everyday items people use and then throw away, such as product packaging, grass clippings, furniture, clothing, bottles, food scraps and papers. In 2018, Americans generated about 292.4 million short tons (265.3 Mt) of trash. In the United States, landfills are regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the states' environmental agencies. Municipal solid waste landfills (MSWLF) are required to be designed to protect the environment from contaminants that may be present in the solid waste stream.
Solid waste policy in the United States is aimed at developing and implementing proper mechanisms to effectively manage solid waste. For solid waste policy to be effective, inputs should come from stakeholders, including citizens, businesses, community-based organizations, non-governmental organizations, government agencies, universities, and other research organizations. These inputs form the basis of policy frameworks that influence solid waste management decisions. In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates household, industrial, manufacturing, and commercial solid and hazardous wastes under the 1976 Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). Effective solid waste management is a cooperative effort involving federal, state, regional, and local entities. Thus, the RCRA's Solid Waste program section D encourages the environmental departments of each state to develop comprehensive plans to manage nonhazardous industrial and municipal solid waste.
The R. Paul Smith Power Station is a closed electric generating plant owned by FirstEnergy in Williamsport, Maryland.
Robert Perciasepe is an American former government official who currently serves as a senior adviser of the nonprofit Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, following his role as President of the organization. He served as the Deputy Administrator and Acting Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency during the administration of Barack Obama.
The Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) is a Washington, D.C.-based environmental nonprofit organization that advocates for more effective enforcement of environmental laws. The organization was founded in 2002 by former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) attorneys Eric V. Schaeffer and Michele Merkel. EIP is known for its legal and investigative efforts to reduce air and water pollution from coal-fired power plants, oil and gas facilities, factory farms, and other sources including incinerators and waste water treatment plants. The group also focuses on environmental justice and pollution in the Chesapeake Bay. EIP is headquartered in Washington, DC, and it has another office in Austin, TX and staff in Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Georgia. In 2013, Charity Navigator, an independent charity evaluator, rated EIP as a four-star charity organization.
California has taken legislative steps in the hope of mitigating the risks of potential effects of climate change in California by incentives and plans for clean cars, renewable energy, and pollution controls on industry.
The Delaware Valley Resource Recovery Facility is a trash incineration plant located in Chester, Pennsylvania. The waste-to-energy plant, which incinerates waste to generate power, was built and operated by Westinghouse from 1991 to 1997. It is currently operated by Covanta. a Morristown, New Jersey-based publicly-traded industrial waste company, and has been criticized for the level of pollution it produces. The plant has the largest capacity of any waste-to-energy plant in the United States.
Destiny Watford is an American environmental activist. She won a Goldman Environmental Prize in 2016.
The Salisbury Municipal Incinerator was a waste management system built for handling municipal waste in Salisbury, Maryland, United States. It burned trash at high temperatures, releasing toxic gasses into the atmosphere and the community. In response to increased awareness of environmental impacts, the city demolished the Incinerator and now uses other modern waste management methods.
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