Curtis Bay residents, taking a visitor on a tour to explain the impacts of industry on their far South Baltimore community, got a chance to illustrate the issue dramatically when a coal dust storm billowed up right before their eyes.

The group was standing at the Curtis Bay Recreation Center last Thursday, looking out across Curtis Avenue, when they saw thick black smoke suddenly rise shortly after 5 p.m. from the CSX Curtis Bay Coal Terminal.

“We thought it was a fire at first. It looked like smoke coming up over the warehouse,” said Greg Sawtell, of the South Baltimore Community Land Trust.

As it happened, a guest of the group had a drone, which he hastily sent up over the facility to capture video of the source of the black smoke.

The footage shows a yellow self-propelled vehicle plowing along on a rail track, churning up mini-tornadoes of dust.

The vehicle appeared to be a ballast cleaning machine, blowing gritty material out of the ballast stones underneath the rails and ties.

For Sawtell and the others present, the incident brought back memories of the December 2021 explosion that rocked the community, shattering windows and sending black particles raining down on car windshields and backyards.

“To see them knowingly release this into the community’s air was just staggering,” said Sawtell whose group, along with the Community of Curtis Bay Association, has been holding protests at the facility and pointing to academic studies (here and here) that show the harmful levels of black carbon from the coal present in the community.

“We’ll call the police”

Since the 2021 explosion, local groups have called on the state not to renew CSX Transportation’s permit to operate the coal pier, a sprawling operation that transfers trainloads of Appalachian coal to bulk cargo ships and coastal barges for export.

Concerned about what they saw last week, Sawtell and the others went to the facility’s front entrance and asked if everyone was okay and what was released?

“It’s probably coal, what do you expect?” was the answer received from a security guard, Sawtell said, along with “him telling us that if we didn’t leave, ‘we’ll call the police’ – something he repeated about 20 times.”

CSX has not responded to a request for comment from The Brew. The railroad says it has spent $60 million in recent years to improve the efficiency of Curtis Bay operations, “setting new standards in environmental stewardship” by, for example, catching rainwater on the pier for use in dust-suppression systems.

UPDATE: Sent to us after publication, this was the response to our detailed questions by CSX spokeswoman Sheriee Bowman: “Last week, CSX conducted routine track maintenance work at our Curtis Bay Piers facility, which included cross-tie and ballast rock replacement. This routine maintenance is critical to ensuring safe operating conditions for railroad equipment. The dust produced during this track work was not a result of coal handling operations. Supplemental dust suppression equipment was brought in to reduce dust migration and finish the work.”

Sawtell’s group reported what happened to the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) and was told the company was cleaning the yard and that someone from the agency would be posted onsite to ensure that water was sprayed to control the dust.

“But yesterday [Sunday] someone else was able to fly a drone over there, and they were doing the same thing. But without any water truck present,” Sawtell said, noting that dust was again stirred up.

“In other words, two days after we reported CSX to the state, they were back at it, doing it exactly the way they had been when we first spotted them.”

“This is an open and ongoing investigation”  – MDE spokesman.

MDE today issued a “notice of violation” against the company, saying that CSX Transportation Inc. violated COMAR 26.11.03 by failing to take “reasonable precautions to prevent particulate matter from becoming airborne.”

According to the notice, “while conducting track maintenance,” the company, “did operate in such a manner that a nuisance of air pollution was created.”

The notice does not indicate that any fine has been imposed, but notes that such violations “are subject to civil penalties of up to $25,000 for each day of violation and to criminal penalties.”

“This is an open and ongoing investigation,” MDE spokesman Jay Apperson told The Brew.

Community’s Takeaway

The incidents on Thursday and Sunday come in the wake of MDE’s release last month of a draft permit that would allow CSX to continue transfer operations as long as it makes changes to reduce the amount of dust it generates.

The changes include constructing a physical barrier to prevent coal dust “from being transported from any coal storage piles on the site into the surrounding community,” according to the draft language.

The barrier is to “surround all coal storage piles completely” and, if it “is open to the atmosphere from above, the maximum coal pile height shall be maintained at a level that is less than the height of the physical barrier,” the draft says.

Community members remain skeptical given their past experience with the company and have continued to press MDE to deny the permit altogether.

“From CSX’s perspective, the community doesn’t exist. That’s what their negligence tell us”  – Greg Sawtell, South Baltimore Community Land Trust.

Asked what they will say at the October 10 public hearing on the draft permit, Sawtell said the latest incidents reinforce their position that the Moore administration should not renew CSX’s permit.

“From CSX’s perspective, the community doesn’t exist. That’s what their negligence tell us. But the people do exist. The community is not going anywhere,” he said.

“If CSX can’t acknowledge and respect that, they shouldn’t be granted the responsibility to operate a facility of this magnitude.”

• The CSX draft permit hearing will be held on Thursday, October 10, at 6 p.m. at the Curtis Bay Recreation Center, 1630 Filbert Street.