Residents battling a proposed human crematorium in north Baltimore – thwarted in their efforts so far by the city zoning board and, later, a circuit court judge – confronted state environmental officials last night and were quickly disappointed.

Almost the first words spoken by Maryland Department of Environment (MDE) officials, briefing a crowd of more than 100 assembled in a York Road church, were unambiguously negative.

“Denying a permit is a pretty egregious step to take,” they were told by Angelo Bianca, deputy director of MDE’s Air and Radiation Administration.

Bianca’s comments triggered a spate of objections and recriminations from dozens living in the area around the proposed human crematorium, who accused MDE of already settling on approving a permit for the facility before hearing out environmental justice and health concerns.

“Black and brown people have the highest levels of asthma,” said Cindy Camp, a Radnor-Winston resident who spoke out against the project before a standing-room-only crowd at Govans Presbyterian Church.

“That you don’t know that is troubling to me. This is a small community. Mostly Black people live on that street. Those are my neighbors,” Camp continued. “That you don’t consider that before approving a crematorium is offensive.”

A Company’s Needs

The at-times confrontational meeting is just the latest battlefield in the war over the crematorium operation proposed in 2020 by Vaughn Greene Funeral Home for its location at 4905 York Road.

Representatives of the company, which has three funeral homes in the city and one in Randallstown, were present, but did not speak at the meeting, organized by MDE in coordination with the York Road Partnership.

Vaughn Greene has said it needs to install the cremator in order to meet a growing demand in the city. It is currently contracting out for cremation services to be provided by a third-party company.

Area residents have said their health would be harmed by the burning of human remains in a densely populated residential area, some 200 feet from the nearest home. They have argued that the area is already experiencing high rates of asthma and other respiratory diseases exacerbated by air pollution.

The permit application states the crematorium emissions will include hydrogen chloride, dioxin, mercury, fine particles, heavy metals and hydrocarbons.

The company’s application for a state air quality permit states that the crematorium will emit air pollutants including hydrogen chloride, dioxin, mercury, fine particles, heavy metals and hydrocarbons.

Seeking the zoning approval required in order to get a state emissions permit, the company went before the Board of Municipal and Zoning Appeals, which granted approval in January 2022.

But community groups challenged the zoning decision in Baltimore Circuit Court, arguing among other things that the BMZA failed to follow the zoning code and that crematoria are, essentially, incinerators, which are no longer permitted by law in the city.

After Circuit Court Judge Lawrence P. Fletcher-Hill ruled in favor of Vaughn Greene, the residents in October filed an Appellate Court appeal which is pending.

Meanwhile, the company has asked MDE to begin reviewing its application for the air quality permit.

Opponents Speak Out

At the informational meeting on Wednesday night, dozens of local residents spoke out against the proposed crematorium, many wearing yellow shirts that read “No Crematorium in Govans.”

“What has MDE done in terms of environmental justice?” demanded Donna Blackwell, a long-time resident. “A lot of negative things always end up on the east side of York Road. I am opposed to this crematorium.”

Another area resident, Karen Thompson, said the permit should be denied because of suffering it will cause for people like her with respiratory conditions.

“When I have asthma, it feels like someone is sitting on my chest and won’t get up,”  Thompson said.

“When I have asthma, it feels like someone is sitting on my chest and won’t get up,”  resident Karen Thompson.

Isabela Botto came with nearly 30 fellow Loyola University of Maryland students, all opposed.

“We’re here partially because we’re so close to York Road, but most of us are also environmental studies majors,” Botto said. “We want to practice what we preach.”

Chris Forrest, the president of the York Road Partnership, pressed MDE officials to commit to doing what is “morally right in regards to the community,” rather than just follow state laws and regulations.

“Environmental Justice” Challenged

But even after being pushed by multiple residents and local elected officials to consider environmental justice and cumulative health impacts in deliberations on the permit, the MDE’s Bianca said that “the science of environmental justice” had not developed enough to be used in permitting decisions.

Instead, he said that the department had to adhere to the legal authority given to it by state law, which did not allow them to take environmental justice into account.

“The existing authority under our laws doesn’t give us the tools to look at cumulative impacts,” he said, in response to questions about using an environmental justice framework in the decision.

“I hear a lot about that term ‘environmental justice,’ but trying to get at that issue in terms of the science is really, really hard,” Bianca continued.

“I wish we had that science base to say, look at all of this around our community, and that the cumulative impacts are overwhelming, but that doesn’t exist for the moment.”

“The existing authority under our laws doesn’t give us the tools to look at cumulative impacts”  – Angelo Bianca, Maryland Department of the Environment.

City Councilman Mark Conway, representing the 4th District, said that he has been opposed to the crematorium since the beginning, and was frustrated that the BMZA had granted zoning approval in the first place.

“The human health detriments that we will see from the constant burning of bodies near people’s homes, is just piling on top of an already overburdened area,” he told The Brew. “Adding additional levels of pollution to neighborhoods that are already on the edge just adds insult to injury.”

Conway said he wished Vaughn Greene had considered putting the facility at another location in a less-dense area of the city or region.

“Hundreds of people have reached out to me about this,” he said. “It has galvanized and united folks up and down the urban corridor.”

Foregone Conclusion?

State Delegate Elizabeth Embry and Senator Mary Washington also spoke out against the proposal.

Washington told The Brew that the debate over the crematorium highlighted a deeper issue within state government — that agencies are not required to assess impacts on environmental justice when making permitting decisions.

She mentioned the Climate Equity Act that failed to pass last legislative session, and said that she was going to push for a new piece of legislation in January that would prevent crematoriums from being placed close to residential homes.

“Why this location? We feel like they thought they’d get less pressure here”  – Chris Forrest, president York Road Partnership.

Washington added that she believes MDE has the legal authority to deny the air permit for the crematorium now, but isn’t willing to. The York Road Partnership’s Forrest had a similar observation.

“It’s concerning that it seems like a foregone conclusion,” Forrest said. “Why this location? We feel like they thought they’d get less pressure here. If they were putting this in Roland Park, they probably thought there would be a lot more pushback.”

“When are we going to stop listening to the businesses who do not live in this area, instead of the citizens who came here to voice their concerns?” said local resident Keith Hogan, to conclude the meeting.

MDE officials told the residents that the department will begin a technical review of the air permit for the crematorium over the next few weeks.

The agency will have a public hearing at a later date to hear official testimony on the issue.