Maryland medical waste incinerator to pay $1.75M fine for exposing public to biohazardous material

BALTIMORE (AP) — A medical waste processing company has pleaded guilty to dozens of environment-related charges and agreed to pay $1.75 million in fines after state prosecutors in Maryland accused a south Baltimore incineration plant owned by the firm of exposing the public to biohazardous material.

The waste comes from hospitals, laboratories and other medical settings. It’s supposed to be burned into ash before being transported to landfills, a process that prevents disease transmission, state officials said Tuesday at a news conference announcing the settlement agreement involving the nation’s largest medical waste incinerator.

The fine incurred by Curtis Bay Energy is among the highest environmental penalties imposed in Maryland’s history. It includes funding for pollution mitigation efforts in south Baltimore’s Curtis Bay neighborhood — a community that has long suffered from environmental degradation thanks to a concentration of industrial facilities situated along the Patapsco River.

The company, which changed ownership after the Maryland Attorney General’s Office launched its investigation in 2019, repeatedly overloaded its incinerators and failed to sufficiently burn medical waste before sending it to landfills, according to prosecutors. Witnesses provided photographs from the site showing substantial amounts of unburned medical waste, including surgical gloves, medical supplies and bedding, according to court documents.