Days Cove landfill pulls permit, ending ‘trash juice’ discharges into Gunpowder River

Last year, operators behind a controversial rubble landfill in a Maryland state park tried to double the amount of leachate they dump into the Gunpowder River.

Now, the company has decided to end releases of this wastewater, sometimes called “trash juice,” altogether.

Days Cove Reclamation Co. Vice President Darren Hunt told the Maryland Department of the Environment in a letter last month that the company wanted to cancel the landfill’s discharge permit.

The termination decision, now posted on MDE’s website, is the latest win for environmentalists and Baltimore County residents who have fought to close the Days Cove landfill.

The Days Cove landfill, a 114-acre construction waste site, has operated for decades within Gunpowder Falls State Park under an unusual lease arrangement with the state. Last month, state leaders approved a multiyear plan to close the site, and the operator sent its letter to end the leachate permit a day later.

Leachate is a potentially toxic runoff formed as rainwater seeps through waste in a landfill.

Tensions over the landfill came to a head in September, after Days Cove operators sought to increase their leachate releases into the Gunpowder from 12,000 to 25,000 gallons. The company later withdrew that request, but MDE regulators approved a permit in April allowing them to continue discharging at near-previous levels.

Instead, Days Cove now faces a deadline for closure, and its operators plan to take their wastewater elsewhere.

In a response letter to the termination request, an official with MDE’s Water and Science Administration agreed to cancel the Days Cove discharge permit. Days Cove operators have 30 days to object, and the termination is effective June 25.

MDE’s updated permit included additional monitoring and treatment requirements, and Gunpowder Riverkeeper Theaux Le Gardeur said landfill operators changed course “due to the restrictive nature” of their new regulations.

Le Gardeur, who is also running as a Republican for Baltimore County Council, celebrated the decision as a victory for the Gunpowder River and a result of community advocacy for tighter controls on Days Cove. The riverkeeper learned of the company’s decision after his organization filed for review of the regulatory limits before a circuit court judge.

Days Cove Reclamation did not respond to a request for comment.

For more than two decades, Days Cove trucked its leachate for disposal at the Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant in Essex, but operators began emptying treated liquid into the Gunpowder under a state permit in 2023.

Since then, the site has exceeded pollution limits on at least 20 occasions, resulting in a $15,000 fine from MDE in 2023.

The permit withdrawal comes as a decades-long fight over the landfill may finally be nearing a close.

For decades, the landfill has collected thousands of tons of construction debris a year on land meant for conservation and recreation, in an agreement that has been financially lucrative for the state. Rent payments from the landfill have generated more than $20 million for a fund that supports the management of public lands.

But last month, a day before Days Cove operators pulled their permit, Maryland leaders voted to permanently close the facility in 2029. Operators will have three years from then to cap, close and restore the site.

After that, state officials envision the landfill site as an extension of Gunpowder Falls State Park.