A fuel oil spill along a half-mile stretch of Pennington Avenue in Curtis Bay yesterday morning had residents gagging and reeling from the irritating chemical odor.

“It was, like, a gasoline smell and then more like a chemical smell, like burning oil,” said Carlos Sanchez, a leader of the South Baltimore Community Land Trust who drove over to check out the situation.

The odor was so strong that Sanchez said he felt itching and burning in the back of his throat even before his car reached Pennington Avenue, which had been covered with sand to absorb the spill by the time he arrived.

“Students were out on the street. People were walking around breathing it,” said Sanchez, who complained that the exposure left him with a headache as well as a burning throat.

Noting that the spill left residents of this far South Baltimore community exposed to unhealthy chemical fumes for hours before clean-up began and neither residents nor community leaders were given a warning to stay inside their homes or avoid the area, Sanchez exploded with frustration.

“The only reason we knew about it was because people who live here were telling each other about it,” he said. “We pay taxes that go to these government agencies. What’s the point if they can’t protect us?”

Living near chemical facilities, a medical waste incinerator and other industrial operations that have impacted public health and safety over the years – including the 2021 explosion at the CSX coal loading operation that rained coal dust down onto neighborhoods as far as 12 blocks away – Curtis Bay community members have long complained about being left to struggle with polluters on their own.

Community leaders were especially concerned yesterday when they saw trucks around the spill area from Petroleum Recovery and Remediation Management, Inc., or PMI, whose 5218 Curtis Avenue location suffered a devastating explosion and fire in 2022 that killed an employee.

PMI has not yet responded to phone calls from The Brew seeking comment.

200 gallons spilled

By afternoon, the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) confirmed that the source of the spill was PMI.

“On the morning of Wednesday, June 3, 2026, a valve failure on a PMI Contracting vacuum truck caused a fuel spill along roughly a half-mile stretch of Pennington Avenue,” MDE spokesman Jay Apperson said, in an email to The Brew.

An estimated 200 gallons of “mixed waste fuel oils” spilled onto a single lane of the roadway, Apperson said. The agency could not identify the material specifically.

“Because the truck collects waste oil from various gas and service stations, the spilled material is a blend of different fuel oils. It has a heavy, uniform petroleum odor, but the exact chemical ratio cannot be isolated.”

Pennington Avenue was reopened to traffic at about 11 a.m., and the bulk of the fuel was cleaned up by the afternoon, Apperson added.

PMI crews did the work under MDE supervision, while city workers spread the sand, according to the Baltimore Department of Transportation.

Sweeping operations were to continue throughout the day, though “some sand has been intentionally left on the street surface to ensure vehicle traction.” Apperson also noted that approximately 25 gallons of the waste oil entered a city storm drain on Cedox Street.

“Emergency crews have successfully vacuumed out the catch basin and placed absorbent materials at the outfall,” he said.

“I’m infuriated with how PMI has been able to just go unchecked”  – City Councilwoman Phylicia Porter.

As for any state violations to potentially be issued to PMI, Apperson had this to say:

“MDE staff have been on site throughout the day and will further investigate the incident and compliance actions of the responsible party.”

Informed about the incident yesterday, City Councilwoman Phylicia Porter was still seething about it today.

“I’m infuriated with how PMI has been able to just go unchecked,” the 10th District representative said. “I hope that MDE will exercise any type of enforcement possible, so that this does not continue to happen.”

WBAL-TV coverage of the MOSH report on the March 7, 2022 fatal fire at PMI’s Curtis Avenue facility. (YouTube)

Fatal Fire, Multiple Violations

The 29-year-old company, which provides oil spill clean-up and other environmental services in Maryland, Washington, D.C., and  northern Virginia, is no stranger to violations.

It came into the spotlight on March 7, 2022, when an explosion and fire ripped through its Curtis Avenue facility, engulfing 51-year-old employee Ernest Cooper in flames.

Maryland Occupational Safety and Health officials found 16 safety violations, 12 of them serious, in connection with the incident. MOSH report described the company as treating 10,000 to 15,000 gallons of petroleum contaminated water per day.

PMI’s Curtis Avenue operation has been a major source of health-harming emissions, according to the EPA.

Community leaders subsequently discovered that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had been investigating the company prior to the fire and determined that it had been operating without a required air permit from 2014 to 2022.

A 2024 federal consent order disclosed that PMI’s Curtis Avenue operation was a major source of health-harming emissions, among them VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) and a laundry list of toxic air pollutants, including:

1,1,2-trichloroethane, 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene, 1,3-butadiene, 1,4-dichlorobenzene, 2,2,4-trimethylpentane, acrolein, acrylonitrile, benzene, carbon disulfide, chloroform, ethylbenzene, hexane, m & p-xylene, methyl ethyl ketone (2-butanone), methyl isobutylketone, methylene chloride, o-xylene, styrene, toluene and vinyl acetate.

Later in 2024, the EPA announced a $230,000 settlement with PMI over multiple violations of the of the Clean Air Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and the Clean Water Act.

Expanding Operations

Now the company seeks a permit to install two petroleum storage tanks in another location – its 1030 East Patapsco Avenue property.

“As our growth and reach of services expands, our need to manage recovered materials has expanded as well,” PMI Operations Manager W. Scott Alexander wrote in a letter to the community.

“Our facilities need bulk storage to unload trucks daily, facilitate the separation process and segregate the resulting components,” Alexander continued, arguing that the ability to unload trucks daily is a safety improvement, “minimizing the transport and risk of large volumes of material in transit, public exposure and unnecessary cross contamination of materials.”

In a 2025 letter to MDE expressing “strong opposition,” the Community of Curtis Bay Association rejected the company’s argument of better safety, warning that the site’s location near homes and a school “raises grave concerns about the safety of students, staff and families.”

“It is really concerning that they’re even considering allowing this expansion” – Carlos Sanchez, South Baltimore Community Land Trust.

Bulk petroleum storage adjacent to a residential area “increases the risk of fire, explosion, and other catastrophic events that could irreversibly harm the community,” the group said, noting the area is already subject to coal dust exposure, noise and hazardous materials transportation.

“They’re thinking of expanding less than a mile from Ben Franklin High School, where I went to school. Unbelievable,” Sanchez said yesterday. “It is really concerning that they’re even considering allowing this expansion.”

Asked the status of PMI’s request, Apperson said it is “under review.”

A recent email from MDE to neighborhood leaders indicates that the state is moving the permit process ahead, despite more than a year of opposition from Porter and the community association. “MDE is in the process of finalizing the necessary permit draft conditions with Petroleum Management Inc,” the agency’s environmental justice coordinator Nevan Edwards wrote, asking for available dates to schedule a public hearing this summer.

– To reach a reporter editors@baltimorebrew.com