Blue Water Baltimore, arguably the city’s most prominent environmental advocacy group, has taken a position on City Hall’s proposal to put a trash transfer station on a site across the road from the Jones Falls waterway:

They’re against it.

In an “action alert” released on Friday, the Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper for Blue Water Baltimore, Alice Volpitta, noted that the 2801 Falls Road site is in a FEMA flood zone.

“Heavy rains and flooding could sweep trash, oil and hazardous materials into the Jones Falls – just 150 feet away – and ultimately into the Harbor and Chesapeake Bay,” Volpitta wrote.

The Scott administration last month announced a plan to sell 2840-2842 Sisson Street, the current Northwest Citizen Drop-off Center, and establish a trash station to replace it down the hill on Falls Road at what is currently a Potts & Callahan storage yard.

That part of Falls Road “already struggles with traffic safety,” Volpitta said. “The addition of heavy truck traffic will only make it more hazardous . . . for pedestrians and cyclists.”

“The many communities linked by the Jones Falls deserve better,” Volpitta’s alert declared.

With Sisson Street currently the only city trash station that accepts household hazardous waste, the statement said, “relocating those materials to a floodplain threatens both water quality and public health.”

“Hold your questions”

At the August 11 meeting where the plan was unveiled, there was only brief mention of the proposal’s impact on Jones Falls water quality.

Displaying a 100-year floodplain map to the group, a top Department of Public Works (DPW) official mentioned involving state officials in the process, promising “we want to make sure . . . that this facility is safe for the environment.”

Thanks to the meeting format, however, audience members had been unable to ask for further information on that issue or others in a way the entire room could hear.

There were to be no questions after city officials concluded their remarks, Scott’s Chief of Staff Calvin Young told the audience. People were to take any concerns up with the staffers from various city agencies positioned at tables around the room.

Residents have been complaining about the so-called breakout session format for years, but city agencies continue to use it.

“People deserve to have their voices heard tonight at this meeting – and not just in a format where we’re speaking one-on-one,” Volpitta complained at a similarly run DPW meeting last year on the city’s federal sewage pollution consent decree.

The public relations person hired to run that meeting wouldn’t budge, reiterating that there were to be no audience questioning of top officials speaking.

Relocating household hazardous waste to a floodplain threatens both water quality and public health, Blue Water Baltimore says.

“This deserves a larger response than just having these small conversations that won’t be elevated to the public,” Volpitta had said to no avail.

Scott’s office has not responded to a request after the August meeting for comment about environmental and other concerns. Neither has Seawall developer Thibault Manekin responded to questions about his company’s role in the proposed new site for a trash facility.

For years, Seawall has said it wants to purchase the Sisson site from the city as part of its larger redevelopment of the area.

The idea now appears to be moving quickly. Legislation to sell the site is now before the City Council.

Community-Driven Planning

In addition to decrying the idea of moving the trash facility next to the waterway, Blue Water Baltimore has questioned DPW’s long-term use of the current facility, which sits across the street from a Burger King and beside an entrance to the Jones Falls Expressway.

“The City’s two options so far – move forward with 2801 Falls Road or do nothing – aren’t good enough,” Volpitta wrote.

She notes that Baltimore’s trash disposal situation is already “challenging” since the city’s Reedbird Transfer Station (the “Western Sanitation Yard”) is closed for construction for an estimated two to three years.

“Without Sisson Street, Baltimore would be left with only two active transfer stations plus the Quarantine Road Landfill, likely fueling an increase in illegal dumping across the city – including the Jones Falls corridor,” Volpitta wrote.

She called for “creative, distributed approaches (such as rolling dumpsters in key neighborhoods) to fill the gap while Reedbird is under construction” along with a study of Baltimore’s current waste system.

“We need a third option,” Volpitta wrote. “A comprehensive, community-driven process to evaluate alternatives that is responsive to the many stakeholders and organizations that oppose this move.”