Maryland’s environmental protection agency is suing a Prince George’s County recycling outfit, alleging that the company has violated anti-pollution laws for years at two rat-infested, oil-leaking, garbage-strewn sites in Cheverly and Baltimore.
The 71-page complaint, filed on behalf of the Maryland Department of the Environment in Prince George’s County Circuit Court this month, lays out environmental violations since December 2014 at two properties controlled by World Recycling Company and its affiliates, Pride Rock and Small World Real Estate.
Inspectors repeatedly documented stacks of scrap tires, wooden pallets and uncovered roll-offs overflowing with food waste, construction debris and even medical waste on company property; 55-gallon drums filled with waste oil; and other hazardous liquids that made their way through storm drains into the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The company’s properties in Cheverly and Baltimore drew swarms of flies and rats, who had the run of buildings and several active burrows, the complaint says.
The complaint also details the agency’s long-running efforts to bring the facilities into compliance with state anti-pollution laws, saying the company only partially attempted to correct the problems or did nothing at all as illegal waste and dumping continued.
The complaint identifies Jeffrey S. Miller as the owner of World Recycling and the managing partner of Pride Rock and Small World Real Estate.
“We dispute the allegations of the MDE complaint,” Miller responded in an email, adding that the company would like to say more but will respond through legal counsel in the appropriate time and manner.
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(Earlier, Jeffrey E. Miller, a retired engineer who lives at a Potomac residence specified in the complaint and has a similar name to the company’s owner, said when reached by phone that the attorney general’s office had erroneously identified his home as the private residence of the recycling company’s owner. Jeffrey E. Miller also said he has been in touch with the attorney general’s office asking them to correct the error.
“I’m wondering how this happened,” he said. “I’m very annoyed.”)
Aleithea Warmack, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Anthony G. Brown (D) — whose office filed the litigation on behalf of the MDE — said the case was initiated in 2014 in response to a citizen’s complaint about litter blowing from the site. Warmack also confirmed that Jeffrey S. Miller was the principal owner of the company but said officials were searching for his correct address.
World Recycling and its affiliates operate two sites registered with the MDE but chronically in violation of the state regulations governing trash disposal and site management, the lawsuit says. One is located at 5600 Columbia Park Rd. in Cheverly — whose 30,000-square-foot building was destroyed by a two-alarm fire in January 2019 — and the other at 2740 Wilmarco Ave. in Baltimore.
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No one on Friday was at the three-acre Cheverly site, which is surrounded by wooden and chain-link fencing and posted with no trespassing signs. There were four bright-red roll-offs, a few heaps of trash and some scrap tires strewn around the ruined foundation of the plant.
“It doesn’t bother us any,” said Brandon Martin, an employee at Xylem, a water technology company east of the former recycling center. He said that other than the 2019 fire, no one had noticed anything unusual about the site.
Behind the site is a Pepco electric substation, and rail lines beyond that. Across the road is a wooded lot that screens the George M. Boyd Memorial Park. Several other people in the industrial area also said they knew nothing about the center or the alleged illegal dumping there, including the staff at Rincon Escondido Deli Bar and Restaurant and a mechanic at nearby A.J. Auto.
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The complaint says recycling activities stopped at the Cheverly property following the January fire — at which time it began to function as an illegal dump and garbage transfer station. The complaint says the Baltimore site has a permit to operate as a recycling center but continues to operate in violation of regulations that limit what it can accept or that are designed to protect the watershed.
The MDE, which had entered into a consent order with the company more than four years ago in an attempt to address multiple violations, says company officials have pledged more than once to bring the site into compliance with environmental regulations but failed to do so, even as more garbage rolled into the site. The Jan. 10 complaint also says that more than once MDE was denied entry for inspections.
In March 2021, the complaint states, an inspector saw more waste being dumped at the site and heard from a driver that Jeffrey S. Miller had directed him to do so. Months later, an inspector saw an Eco Waste Solutions truck deposit a roll-off container on the Cheverly property. The complaint says Miller is a managing partner in that collection company, too.
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MDE and defendants entered a consent order, effective April 30, 2018, that spelled out necessary remedial actions and levied a $45,000 civil penalty for past violations. The complaint says the agency initially collected only $11,250, pending the companies’ efforts to comply with the laws, but has since demanded that the firm pay in full.
Additional penalties — including $100 per day per violation — began accruing April 30, 2018, and continue to add up, the complaint says. It now asks the court to tack on an additional civil penalty of up to $10,000 per violation per day against all defendants.
This story has been updated with comment from the attorney general’s office and the company’s owner.
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