Mayor Brandon Scott today announced the groups on a 13-member Sisson Street Task Force he created following a public backlash over environmental and safety concerns over the future of the Sisson trash transfer facility.

The panel – which will include three City Council members (Jermaine Jones, Odette Ramos and James Torrence), the departments of Public Works and Transportation, and eight community groups – is charged with studying whether to keep the facility where it is on Sisson Street, move it to another location or close it down.

Conspicuously absent is the watchdog group Blue Water Baltimore, one of the strongest opponents of the City Hall plan, sprung in August, to sell the land to a developer and move the transfer facility down the hill near the environmentally sensitive Jones Falls.

Household hazardous waste is stored at what is officially known as the Northwest Citizen’s Drop-off Center as well as trash and recycling materials.

Alice Volpitta, Blue Water’s harbor waterkeeper, was among many who called on the public to oppose a plan that would place trash alongside a stream that flows into the Inner Harbor and is the site of costly government sewage and stormwater cleanup efforts.

“Relocating those materials to a floodplain threatens both water quality and public health,” wrote Volpitta, whose organization is arguably the city most authoritative environmental monitoring and advocacy group.

• SPECIAL BREW SERIES: Scott’s Sisson Trash Plan

Volpitta could not be reached for comment today.

The rest of the mayor’s task force will consist of a representative from each of the following groups:

Greater Remington Improvement Association, Midtown Community Benefits District, Friends of the Jones Falls, Stonehill Community Association, Hampden Community Association, Charles Village Civic Association, Reservoir Hill Community Association and Bikemore.

A Slow Rollout

Scott disclosed at his City Hall press availability that the task force membership was being “determined” today.

He did not say which administration officials will sit on the task force, who will chair it or when the first meeting will be. But the announcement at least advanced a process that had seemed to have stalled.

Scott first proposed the task force on September 3, saying that he would expect its recommendation “by December.”

But as weeks wore on with no task force named, Friends of the Jones Falls and other groups urged City Hall to get going.

It’s still unclear how much consideration will be given to the site that drew furious public opposition – 2801 Falls Road, where the Potts & Callahan company has a storage yard it wants to lease to the city.

As part of the plan laid out by Scott’s chief of staff, Calvin Young, Falls Road would be closed to vehicle traffic at Mill No. 1. Individuals hailing trash to the site, and trucks hauling it out, would have to enter near Lafayette Avenue at Station North and exit the same way.

Originally, Scott wanted the City Council to approve the sale of the Sisson Street site this month and have a final land disposition agreement in hand by Christmas.

One of the mayor’s top political allies, Thibault Manekin of Seawall Development, has a bid on the property through the Baltimore Development Corp.

Disclosure of the proposal drew criticism from restaurants, shops and developers along Falls Road, who said there was no community engagement before the plans were announced as a fait accompli.

Falls Road businesses also are not represented on the task force.