Baltimore’s towering, 41-year-old trash incinerator is being shut down for what operators call once-in-a-decade maintenance, temporarily disrupting city trash collection and other solid waste operations.

Starting today and running through Saturday, March 14, there may be delays in trash and recycling pickups as well as services at some residential drop-off center locations, according to a “service disruption alert” by the Department of Public Works (DPW).

During this time the South Baltimore facility, long known as BRESCO, and located beside I-95, will be closed for maintenance and will not accept materials, the alert said.

A spokeswoman for WIN Waste Innovations, formerly known as Wheelabrator Technologies, said the facility operates under “a robust investment and maintenance schedule to ensure safe, efficient operations and full compliance with Maryland’s permitting requirement.”

While scheduled maintenance is typically completed without impacting the city’s disposal needs, the current total shutdown is “unique,” she acknowledged.

“In this instance, the work included targeted upgrades to the tipping floor to improve long‑term efficiency, reduce truck turn times and support reliable disposal operations,” Communications Director Mary Urban said, in an email to The Brew.

“This type of investment is needed once every decade and helps ensure we can continue to serve as a reliable and essential part of the city’s waste infrastructure,” Urban said on behalf of the Portsmouth, New Hampshire-based company.

Asked whether the facility previously had a closure that resulted in shutting down the facility for days and sending trucks elsewhere, Urban answered this way:

“While impacts to the city’s disposal capacity are rare, this maintenance is required approximately every 10 years and would have affected prior operations in a similarly brief time frame.”

Slower Collection, Longer Lines

The DPW alert said during the shutdown “all Bureau of Solid Waste disposal operations will be temporarily redirected to the Quarantine Road Landfill,” warning that specific impacts could include:

• Slower trash collection on some routes as DPW crews will face longer wait times to dispose of their loads at the landfill.

• Longer wait times at the Northwest Transfer Station, Quarantine Road Landfill and Residential Recycling Centers.

• Limited availability of roll-off containers at recycling drop-off centers.

“Crews will continue working to provide service and minimize disruptions during this period,” the DPW message said, asking residents to “please be patient as crews manage the increased disposal traffic.”

Normal service levels are expected to resume on Monday once the maintenance outage concludes.

Surprise to Community Leaders

The abrupt announcement came as a surprise to community leaders who have been pushing to close the aging plant, pointing to it as Baltimore’s largest stationary source of greenhouse gases and an emitter of health-harming substances including nitrogen oxide (NOx), sulfur dioxide, formaldehyde and mercury.

A joint University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University study released last year found that BRESCO and the city’s medical waste incinerator in Curtis Bay together are causing nearly $100 million in health damages to residents of Baltimore and D.C.

“Residents deserve full transparency not just because the city pays the facility millions in public dollars, but because the operations directly impact our health every day,” said Carlos Sanchez, an organizer with the South Baltimore Community Land Trust.

• Pollution from BRESCO incinerator likely to continue through mid-2030s, DPW planning report says (4/27/23)

• South Baltimore residents file complaint against city, saying BRESCO pollution threatens their civil rights (5/29/24)

“Incinerators are notorious for issues that can lead to excess emissions, as we are seeing now with alarming dioxin releases at the nearby Montgomery County incinerator.” Sanchez said. “This is why we continue to press for a transition beyond incineration and landfilling, as outlined in our ongoing Title VI civil rights complaint.”

Win Waste’s Urban said the facility’s maintenance schedule is shared in advance with the city as well as other customers, including Baltimore County and that maintenance is performed throughout the year to ensure compliance with environmental regulations.

It is “the tipping floor upgrades planned for this outage [that] make it unique and require a temporary impact to the city’s operations,” she added.