As rainwater trickles through waste in a landfill, it collects toxins, chemicals and heavy metals, forming a pungent and polluted brew. The technical term for the mixture is “leachate,” but it’s also known as “trash juice.”

The Days Cove Rubble Landfill, located on a peninsula in White Marsh, has applied for a permit to dump as much as 25,000 gallons of the toxic liquid each day into the Bird River, a tributary of the Gunpowder River. Generations of Baltimore County families have used the area for swimming, fishing and crabbing.

The 83-acre rubble landfill, adjacent to the county-run Eastern Sanitary Landfill, accepts a variety of construction materials, including brick, drywall, asphalt, wood and electrical wiring.

It is proposing to more than double the 12,000 gallons of leachate it currently dumps into the river each day, soon after racking up 20 pollution violations under its existing wastewater permit.

The new permit is under review by the Maryland Department of the Environment. A public hearing is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Perry Hall Library, and MDE will accept written comments through 5 p.m. Monday.

The proposal has run into fierce pushback from lawmakers, environmentalists and community members in the county’s northeast corner, where public waterways have faced constant threats from overdevelopment, urbanization and industry.

“For decades, we continue to be dumped on. We’ve had enough of it,” said Josh Sines, president of the Essex Middle River Civic Council, an umbrella organization representing more than 20 east side communities.

Opponents have many concerns about the landfill’s proposal. Users of wells worry about leachate contaminating their drinking water. Fishermen warn about harm to aquatic life and vegetation. And residents fear another blow to economic and recreational life in their communities.

“Our livelihood in eastern Baltimore County is linked to the strength of the waterways,” said County Councilman David Marks, an east side Republican. “Any time there is interest in expanding the scope of one of these landfills, it raises a lot of concerns.”

Days Cove Rubble Landfill did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

In an email, MDE spokesman Jay Apperson invited the public to weigh in with its concerns.

“We will carefully consider all comments as we make a final determination on this application,” he wrote.

20 violations

The landfill opened in 1991 and used to truck its leachate to Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant in Essex. Starting in April 2023, it switched to discharging treated leachate into the Bird River watershed, according MDE documents.

Under its current wastewater permit, the landfill must reduce the pollutants in its leachate before letting it enter nearby waterways.

But Environmental Protection Agency data shows that the facility exceeded those pollution limits at least 16 times in 2023. It was flagged six of those times for high levels of copper and zinc, heavy metals that are noxious to aquatic life. For four months, it also failed to test its leachate for trivalent arsenic, a potent human carcinogen.

The spate of violations prompted MDE to complete an unannounced inspection of the landfill in October 2023 and issue a $15,000 fine, according to the agency’s records.

The facility’s problems stemmed from “a learning curve to optimize treatment following the startup of discharge,” MDE said in a subsequent report.

Last year the facility exceeded its pollution limits four more times. The most serious breach occurred last October, when its discharge contained over three times the permitted amount of trivalent arsenic.

The landfill implemented corrective measures to improve its wastewater treatment process after the 2023 and 2024 violations, according to MDE documents. Apperson said the facility has been in compliance with its current permit since November.

Some environmental activists say Days Cove’s track record raises questions about its ability to manage a higher discharge.

“My sense is, well, that’s just not fair,” said Theaux Le Gardeur, executive director of Gunpowder Riverkeeper, a local environmental watchdog. “If the facility can’t meet its permit obligation now, what is it going to be when they have twice the volume?”

First the mud. Now this.

To Vera Reiner, leachate pollution is just the latest challenge confronting the Gunpowder River and its tributaries.

Reiner, now in her mid-90s, has lived in the same brick house on the Oliver Beach waterfront, just downriver from the site of the Days Cove landfill, since the 1940s. She and generations of her family used to spend their days catching crabs, swimming in clear water and fishing for yellow perch.

Starting around the 1960s, housing, retail and industrial development accelerated in northeast Baltimore County, clearing out trees and grasses that protected the watershed.

Soon, rainstorms washed more mud, chemicals and waste into the river. Underwater grasses and aquatic animals disappeared. Life on the waterfront changed.

“To think that it’s been a whole summer and I have not seen a kid in the water,” Reiner said.

Reiner and her family have long been active in organizing community members and lobbying lawmakers to keep the rivers free of pollutants, from sediment to trash juice.

“This is decades of work, and it is constant,” said Reiner’s daughter, Kathy Martin.

Local fishermen also plan to speak against the proposed landfill permit, said Scott Sewell, conservation director of Maryland Bass Nation.

Freshwater flows into the Gunpowder from Big and Little Gunpowder Falls, creating conditions for many fish species to thrive. The area has become a prime bass fishing destination, attracting locals, out-of-state anglers and tournaments that offer money and prestige.

A 2016 fish kill devastated the local bass population, Sewell said, though replenishing efforts have helped fuel a rebound. Additional pollution could erase those gains.

“Our ecosystem is just so fragile these days that I don’t want to see anything going into the water that could jeopardize that,” Sewell said.