Forget It Jake, It's Baltimore - Human Remains go Down the Drain

At the Balmer Sun, A Baltimore mortician is performing water cremation — before regulations are in place

It’s almost like a washing machine, if you ask Joseph H. Brown. The casket-shaped metal tank sitting in Brown’s crematory in West Baltimore uses hot water, chemicals and a bit of agitation to dissolve human remains, leaving behind only bone.

The practice, formally known as alkaline hydrolysis, was legalized during this year’s General Assembly session. But the state Board of Morticians and Funeral Directors is still writing the regulations that will govern the practice in Maryland, according to its director. There’s a law on the books, but no regulation, creating what may be a legal gray area for performing the procedure.

Brown, who installed his system in April, said he hasconducted water cremation. He believes he’s the first to do so in the state. He charges $5,000 for it, compared to $1,700 for a traditional flame cremation.

“My mother, who is 94-years-old, she says — joking — ‘Why would anybody pay more for alkaline hydrolysis?’” Brown said. “Let me answer that for you: Some people drive a Mercedes and some people drive a Pinto.”

For his part, Brown insists that he’s following the law, which took effect in October. On Thursday, alongside Baltimore City Councilman Mark Conway, he invited journalists to a news conference at the funeral home, located in Mondawmin, south of Druid Hill Park.

“I’m a licensed mortician. I have done thousands of cremations. Now, I’m just doing it a different way,” he said. “Does the Board have a problem with me doing it? Well, they want me to wait for regulation.”

Brown joked that if authorities come to arrest him for doing so, he ought to “make sure I have on a nice suit.” The media coverage might only drive more attention to water cremation, he said.

“The publicity works,” he said.

And where does the "remains" go?

Brown’s equipment utilizes water, ethanol and alkaline chemicals to decompose a body in about three hours, tilting back and forth to agitate the solution, the way a washing machine cleanses clothes, he said.

Brown said he spent close to $1 million on the water cremation equipment, which also includes a tank where the water’s pH is reduced from 14 to 12.5 before it is released into Baltimore City’s sewer system, and heads to the Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant for treatment.

For that, he has received a permit from the city, said Jennifer Combs, spokesman for the city’s Department of Public Works, in an email.

According to the Cremation Association of North America, the leftover water is considered sterile, and contains salts, sugars, amino acids and peptides. There is no tissue or DNA left after the process completes.Antwan Holt, cremation supervisor at Joseph H Brown Jr. Funeral Home, opens the lid of the vessel used for alkaline hydrolysis or water cremation at the OnSite Cremation LLC facility. This is offered as a greener, though more costly, option than traditional cremation. (Kim Hairston/Staff)

After the process, the bone fragments are dried for several days before they can be reduced to an ash-like substance, which could be placed in an urn like other cremated remains. The water cremation process actually produces a higher volume of remains than fire cremation, because less material is lost to the surrounding air, Brown said

 So all the nutrients in the body go back to the Chesapeake Bay.