Report: Baltimore S Baybrook Area One of the Most Polluted Neighborhoods in Maryland

REPORT: BALTIMORE’S BAYBROOK AREA ONE OF THE MOST POLLUTED NEIGHBORHOODS IN MARYLAND, ACTION NEEDED FROM LOCAL/STATE OFFICIALS

High Mortality Rates for Chronic Lower Respiratory Disease, Lung Cancer and Heart Disease Seen in Baybrook; Area Among the Worst in Maryland for Health Risks from Toxic Air Pollution

BALTIMORE, MD///March 15, 2012///Despite air quality improvements from control equipment installed at two nearby coal-fired power plants, Curtis Bay was the top zip code in Maryland, and among the top 100 zip codes in the United States, in 2010 for toxic air pollution released from local facilities, according to a new report from the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project (EIP). More troubling, a lack of air quality monitoring in this working class neighborhood makes it difficult to assess the extent of the air pollution problems and their likely health effects.

That means the Baltimore City residents who live in Curtis Bay and Brooklyn, known as the Baybrook area, may be paying a stiff price in terms of health effects. The EIP report cites the most recent data available from the National Air Toxics Assessment (NATA), produced by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which indicates that Baybrook ranks near the top, both within Maryland and nationally, for the highest risk of developing respiratory effects and for risk of developing cancer from toxic air pollution.

Environmental Integrity Project Attorney Leah Kelly said: “Residents of Baybrook deserve the same quality of life and health as other communities within Maryland. The state has worked hard to reduce pollution from out of state sources, and to clean up power plants within Maryland’s borders. But more can be done to monitor air pollution in Baybrook and to identify and reduce emissions from sources that have the greatest impact on the community’s health.”

Highlights of the EIP report include the following:

 From 2005 to 2009, the Curtis Bay zip code was among the top 10 zip codes in the country for the highest quantity of toxic air pollutants released by stationary (non-mobile) facilities. In 2007 and 2008, Curtis Bay ranked first in the entire country for these releases. Curtis Bay dropped to 74th out of 8,949 zip codes in 2010 after installation of pollution control technology at two nearby coal-fired power plants, but still ranks first in Maryland for emissions of air toxics from stationary sources. The emissions from this area constitute 37 percent of the toxic emissions in the state and more than 87 percent of all toxic stationary source emissions in Baltimore City.

 Each of the four census tracts within Baybrook ranks between the 87th and the 92nd percentiles in Maryland for highest risk of developing respiratory effects from toxic air pollution. Of the three residential census tracts, two are within the top 90th percentile for respiratory risk.

 One of the residential census tracts in Baybrook ranks in the 91st percentile in the state for risk of developing cancer from toxic air pollution, and another ranks in the 81st percentile.

 Although a monitor in Baybrook was recording the highest concentrations of fine particulate matter (or PM2.5) in Baltimore City, and PM2.5 is a pollutant that contributes to risk of death from heart disease and other causes, that monitor was removed in 2008 and has not been replaced.

 Although ground-level ozone is likely contributing to risk of adverse respiratory effects, such as asthma, in Baybrook, there is no ozone monitor located in Baybrook. Monitoring data for ozone is available from only one Baltimore City monitor, which is located in the northeast of the city, several miles from Baybrook. This monitor has recorded generally increasing concentrations of ozone in recent years. In 2011, these levels were higher than air quality standards set by EPA. Shrinking budgets have made it harder to maintain local monitoring networks – the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) needs the legislature to support a modest increase in the emission fees paid by the largest polluters to cover the cost of monitoring the pollution they cause.

 Although diesel particulate matter (diesel PM) is an important carcinogen, it is not modeled as part of cancer risk under NATA because the U.S. EPA has not yet adopted a value for its strength as a carcinogen (i.e. a cancer potency value). When the cancer potency value established by the California Environmental Protection Agency is applied to NATA, the results indicate that cancer risk from diesel PM in Baybrook is about four to five times greater than cancer risk from the rest of the pollutants modeled by NATA combined.

The new EIP report makes several recommendations to improve air quality for residents of Baybrook and fill in information gaps about health and air pollution for this Baltimore community. They include:

 Increase ambient air monitoring for fine particulate matter, ozone and key toxic air pollutants in the Baybrook area.

 State agencies, such as MDE and the Maryland Public Service Commission, should consider the cumulative health impacts from multiple sources of pollution in permitting and enforcement decisions.

 The Maryland Port Authority (MPA) should produce a comprehensive updated emissions inventory which includes emissions from ships, port equipment and vehicles, and fugitive coal dust emissions. MPA should also work with MDE to develop a clean air action plan that sets short and long-term goals for reducing emissions, and identifies methods for achieving those goals.

 Industrial facilities located in Baybrook should be required to include, as a term of any new contracts entered into with trucking companies, that all trucks be fitted with diesel particulate filters, which can routinely remove more than 90 percent of diesel PM emissions from truck tailpipes.

 City officials should work with residents and community leaders to re-direct heavy truck traffic away from the residential neighborhoods of Curtis Bay.

ABOUT EIP

The Environmental Integrity Project (http://www.environmentalintegrity.org) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization established in March of 2002 by former EPA enforcement attorneys to advocate for effective enforcement of environmental laws. EIP has three goals: 1) to provide objective analysis of how the failure to enforce or implement environmental laws increases pollution and affects the public’s health; 2) to hold federal and state agencies, as well as individual corporations, accountable for failing to enforce or comply with environmental laws; and 3) to help local communities in key states obtain the protection of environmental laws.

MEDIA CONTACT: Will Harwood, (703) 276-3255 or [email protected].