The practice of environmental racism in Maryland is now reaching the legal system. The state is facing a civil rights lawsuit after approving plans to build a fifth power plant in the unincorporated town of Brandywine, a majority-Black town located in Prince George’s County that already struggles with problems related to pollution.
“The Maryland agencies that decided that this plant should be built are putting a bunch of pollution sources into a community that’s 75 percent black, while whiter communities get cleaner air,” said Neil Gormley, the attorney with Earthjustice who filed the complaint. Earthjustice is the country’s biggest nonprofit environmental law organization.
Gormley also called the situation “an egregious example of discrimination.”
