Families in the Cedar Creek and River Hill neighborhoods of Columbia, Maryland, began organizing earlier this year when they learned a chemical company is seeking to build an “advanced recycling” plastics burning facility adjacent to their homes. This facility would emit harmful air pollution, contaminated oil, and toxic ash, so residents are advocating for EPA, the Maryland Department of Environment, and Howard County to block the company’s permits and ensure the facility is properly regulated.
As told to Sam Schmitz by AmiCietta Duche Clarke:
For Maryland families like mine, Halloween felt a little different this year. Rather than the usual crisp fall full of beautiful falling leaves, it was an unseasonably warm 80 degrees. But aside from the alarmingly warm weather, my daughters’ trick-or-treating was unlike years past as we spent it handing out flyers to our neighbors about a chemical facility set to be built just around the corner. The proposed facility would spew toxic air pollution into our community.
Tell Congress: Burning Plastic Is Not a Solution to the Plastics Crisis
When my husband and I moved into the River Hill neighborhood of Columbia, Maryland, with our now seven-year-old twin daughters just a few years ago, I remember looking at the W.R. Grace building adjacent to our community where this project is now set to be built thinking, “Hm, this church looks a little different.” When I Googled it, I found out it was not a church but the headquarters for the chemical company W.R. Grace, but at that point, it was just an office building.
Earlier this year, though, I got a call from a friend whose property line backs up to W.R. Grace. She told me her family had noticed the trees were browning and had stopped growing and the creek nearby was bubbling. Then just a couple of months later, they noticed smoke coming out of the ground. At the same time, new construction had begun across the fence line, and it was causing a sort of toxic manure smell. Although the Maryland Department of the Environment told us that the construction was to improve the stormwater drainage system, nearby residents questioned if research testing had already begun, even before the new construction. While we continued to grow more concerned, we had no idea the way our lives and community would be turned upside down.
Soon after, we discovered that W.R. Grace had filed for a permit to build a “chemical recycling” facility just 70 meters from our neighbors’ home and just half a mile from ours. This is a facility that scientists and health professionals agree will emit cancer-causing air pollution. Essentially, W.R. Grace’s proposed facility will burn plastic waste to extremely high temperatures, releasing chemicals, including benzene, a known carcinogen. And this will happen a stone’s throw from our community’s homes and our kids’ playgrounds. Put simply, “chemical recycling” is far from actual recycling and is instead just a misleading term for burning plastic that the plastics industry uses to make it sound eco-friendly. Even more deplorable, the plastics industry is trying to evade air pollution regulations and avoid adhering to crucial public health protections like buffer zones from communities like ours.
As a health coach myself, I’m all too familiar with the ways that the environment and chemicals around us affect our health and our lives. In fact, I became a health coach after battling a rare autoimmune disease that caused weakness throughout my body. I had difficulty seeing and had impaired mobility because of weakness in my hands and legs, all while working 80 to 100 hours a week as a corporate lawyer. After trying many medications and even surgery, I was diagnosed with steroid-induced osteoporosis at the age of 32. At that point, I decided to take matters into my own hands after learning about the ways plastics and other commonly found toxins disrupt our hormones and endocrine system. I started doing everything I could afford to do to clean up my life: eating organic, cutting out dairy, monitoring the air and water quality around me, removing plastics from my home, and lowering my stress levels in any way I could.
I’m happy to say I’ve been symptom and medication free for over 13 years now, but W.R. Grace’s facility has the potential to undo all my progress while also wreaking havoc on the health of my young daughters. I’ve worked so hard to create a clean environment to raise my daughters in, but I can’t control the pollution outside. This is the job of our elected officials, EPA, and the Maryland Department of the Environment. It feels like Grace is coming in and doing a toxic dump into our communities, our homes, and our kids’ developing bodies. As I’ve continued to fight the buildout of this polluting facility, I’ve been able to spend less time with my daughters, so much so that they keep asking, “How could Grace do this to us?” I wish I had an answer.
While I can (largely) control how much Halloween candy and red dye 40 my daughters consume, now I’m stuck fighting for their right to breathe clean air and their ability to grow up in a healthy environment. I know we can’t predict the future, but I’m set on limiting all the risk factors for my daughters that I can, so they don’t have to experience the life-altering consequences of a chronic illness like I did. Whether it’s handing out flyers while trick-or-treating, speaking at community protests, or meeting with my lawmakers through Moms Clean Air Force, I’m determined to ensure my daughters get the clean air and healthy future they deserve.
Learn more about Moms’ work on “advanced recycling.”
Tell Congress: Burning Plastic Is Not a Solution to the Plastics Crisis