What was supposedly a recycling business in Cheverly, Md., has actually been operating as an illegal trash transfer station and open dump for almost a decade, according to a lawsuit filed by Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown.

The business, called World Recycling Company, is located next to the Cheverly Metro Station, adjacent to Route 50 in Prince George’s County. Beaverdam Creek, a tributary of the Anacostia River, runs alongside the property.

The lawsuit recounts nearly ten years of inspections documenting illegal pollution at the dump. Over the years, inspectors found open piles of trash infested with flies and rats, mountains of up to 500 scrap tires, open barrels of oil, uncovered buckets of diesel fuel, uncapped buckets of hydraulic fluid , and open pits full of “oily liquid, trash and debris,” according to the suit.

In January 2019, a two-alarm fire destroyed the only building on the Cheverly property. According to the suit, the rubble from the fire was not removed for many months. Inspections in the winter and spring of 2021 found that cleanup from the fire had stalled. “Piles of construction and demolition debris remained throughout the property, including piles of shingles, sandblasting material, and bricks,” reads the suit.

The company’s actions at the dump site are “disproportionately affecting overburdened communities and communities of color,” said Attorney General Brown in a statement. Brown was sworn in as attorney general earlier this month, and is the first Black person to serve in that role in Maryland. Previously, Brown represented Prince George’s County as a member of Congress and as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates.

The lawsuit was filed in Prince George’s County Circuit Court. The suit asks the judge to require the company to stop storing and transferring trash and to clean up the dump site. The suit also alleges similar violations at a site owned by the same company in Baltimore.

Efforts to contact World Recycling Company for comment were unsuccessful. Someone who answered the phone number listed for the business said it was the wrong number. The lawsuit names Jeffrey S. Miller of Potomac, Md. as the owner of the company. However, a Jeffrey E. Miller who resides at the address listed in the suit said he was not affiliated with the company in any way.

Previously, in 2018, World Recycling Company and other affiliated companies came to a settlement with the state over alleged pollution, agreeing to remedy violations on the properties in Cheverly and Baltimore and agreeing to pay a $45,000 fine. The company paid $11,250 of the penalty, but $33,750 was “held in abeyance” — due only if the company failed to comply with the cleanup requirements of the settlement.

The attorney general is now seeking more than $75,000 from the defendants, including the previously levied $33,750.