BALTIMORE COUNTY, Md. — Wiley Funeral Home in Randallstown has applied for a permit with the Maryland Department of the Environment to create a crematory on Liberty Road.
WATCH: Randallstown neighbors oppose proposed crematory
The proposal is to use a 5100 square foot building the funeral home owns, and for the crematory to be inside in a space of 627 square feet.
It's something CEO Brandon Wiley said is not a want, but a need.
"Cremation is becoming more of an option, so in order to better serve the families that we serve on a daily basis, we're just trying to have a crematory that way we can control all of those items inside of our facilities as opposed to outsourcing them to other crematories," Wiley said.
But neighbors disagree.
Thursday night, those neighbors were able to express their concerns at an informational meeting the MDE organized.
Resident Gary English told WMAR 2 News why he is against the crematory.
"Everyone in my community is on well water, and so eventually that's gotta go up and come back down and might seep into our water. So they're doing this to the detriment of people who live in this community. We don't want it," English said.
Wiley and his air quality specialist weren't able to answer questions about potential water effects from the crematory.
But the specialist said there will be no smoke or odor from the facility, and they would be well below the limits for pollutant emissions.
That's not enough for neighbor Shirley Supik.
"Number one, I don't think we need it here. We haven't needed it up to this point, and we don't need it. It should be on a different location, it shouldn't be in the heart of the community hanging over the people's heads, whether or not the emissions is harmful or it isn't, if they think it is, even if it isn't, it's an impairment to their lives," Supik said.
Wiley told WMAR 2 News that he understands that everybody's not going to agree.
"We wanna provide as much information about cremation, about living and worshiping and working around cremation so that people can feel comfortable. Everybody's not gonna feel comfortable, but if we can give them the information and education, then I believe it will help them."
MDE will now do a technical review of the application, which staff at Thursday's meeting said will take months to complete.
