Environmentalists had a mixed response to the news that Maryland Environment Secretary Serena McIlwain is stepping down, the latest member of Gov. Wes Moore’s cabinet to be shown the door as his second term begins.

McIlwain, whose departure was announced today after 3½ years in the role, has presided over some high-profile settlements with polluters, advocates noted.

Among them was the City of Baltimore, which in 2023 agreed to pay a fine of up to $4.7 million in the wake of massive sewage releases from its two seriously dysfunctional sewage treatment plants.

But Alice Volpitta, of Blue Water Baltimore, which filed the initial lawsuit over the sewage releases and was a party to the settlement, said the state could be doing much more to get ahead of ongoing pollution issues and prevent them from reaching a crisis stage.

“We had some strong legal wins in collaboration with MDE during her time as secretary, but I’m looking forward to a change,” Volpitta, Blue Water Baltimore’s Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper, told The Brew.

“I would like to see someone who is more proactive on enforcement and keeping the agency fully staffed,” she said.

Community activists made the point more strongly, blasting MDE for failing to crack down on polluters until pushed to do so by residents and advocates.

They cite the medical waste incinerator in Curtis Bay, whose toxic air emissions and illegal releases of waste products sparked complaints and violations for years before the state, just last month, shuttered their operation.

“It’s being shut down because of people from this community and other communities who have fought for generations to get it shut down, and it should not have to be that way,” resident David Jones said at a hearing MDE held last month in South Baltimore.

Community members in North Baltimore, meanwhile, are frustrated over MDE’s handling of a permit issued to a funeral home company to install a crematorium within 200 feet of homes.

Within months of its opening, the Vaughn Greene Funeral Services crematorium at 4905 York Road was drawing complaints by residents, who filmed visible smoke releases from its emissions stack, in violation of its permit.

Cabinet Reshuffling

According to today’s release from Moore’s office, McIlwain “will conclude her tenure as the department’s secretary on December 31, following 39 years of public service in leadership roles across numerous state and federal environmental agencies.

“Secretary McIlwain has dedicated decades of her life to public service, and her contributions will ensure that we leave our young Marylanders with more sustainable, equitable and healthy communities than the ones we inherited,” the governor is quoted saying.

Deputy Secretary Adam Ortiz will serve as acting secretary, effective January 1, 2027.

Also stepping down, the governor’s office said, is Secretary of Emergency Management Russell Strickland, who “will retire from his role as the department’s secretary on December 8, after a 50-year public safety career serving the residents of Maryland.”

Montgomery County Assistant Chief Administrative Officer Earl Stoddard will serve as acting EM secretary, effective December 9.

Three other departing cabinet secretaries were announced last week after Moore won re-election: Susan Lee, secretary of state; Edward Rothstein, secretary of veterans and military families, and Carolyn Scruggs, secretary of public safety and correctional services.

Also departing is Moore’s chief of staff. Lester Davis will head to the Maryland Technology Development Corp. after 14 months running the governor’s staff.

Tougher Stance Needed

McIlwain, who was confirmed as MDE secretary in March 2023, had previously served as the under secretary at the California Environmental Protection Agency.

A native of the Washington Metro area, she also worked for the federal government in a number of executive roles, including at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as assistant regional administrator based in San Francisco.

Like Volpitta, a staffer at another prominent environmental nonprofit had a mixed review of MDE under McIlwain.

The staffer noted MDE’s tentative denial of a permit this week of a Baltimore waste oil cleanup company, which wanted to expand at a site in Curtis Bay close to homes and a high school.

“Agencies don’t deny permits very often, so they have done some meaningful and good things,” the staffer said. “But that company has a really bad compliance history, and the community was really concerned about it for a long, long time.”

The staffer said they hope that the next MDE secretary will take a tougher stance on enforcement, opting, for instance, to impose stricter limits on specific pollutant emissions from Baltimore’s long-controversial BRESCO trash incinerator.

“We would prefer MDE to be stronger in terms of standing up to industry pressure to weaken legislation, which is always there. There’s an enormous amount of industry pressure.”

Recent Brew Coverage of MDE

• MDE tentatively rejects Curtis Bay petroleum cleanup company’s permit request (11/9/26)

• Randallstown residents mount last-minute push to stop a planned crematorium (10/17/26)

• Part 1: Citing toxic ash, residents again call for BRESCO incinerator to be shut down (10/5/26)

• Part 2: MDE abruptly cancelled plan to allow independent testing of BRESCO’s incinerator ash (10/6/26)

• Curtis Bay medical waste company is closing incinerator operations following years of community opposition (9/30/26)

• Crematorium that had two visible smoke releases in July conducts MDE-required stack testing (8/7/26)