Posted under Chesapeake Bay
As part of its new, more aggressive posture, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper are threatening to sue the present and former owners of the Sparrows Point steel mill, the EPA and Maryland Department of the Environment for failing to clean up pollution at Sparrows Point. From the release:
“Sadly, federal and state agencies have not met their responsibilities at Sparrows Point,” said Will Baker, president of CBF. “The owners of the plant signed a legal agreement to clean up the site more than a decade ago, but authorities haven’t enforced it. Meanwhile, people live nearby, and fish and crab in waters where sediments are laced with toxic contaminants.”
The agreement, called a Consent Decree, was signed in 1997 by the original owner Bethlehem Steel Corp. and the federal and state agencies. The terms of the agreement have not been met.
Past and recent investigations at the site have found: Carcinogens in soils at the mill site at levels many times the Maryland soil cleanup standards; high concentrations of toxic metals, petroleum by-products, and solvents in groundwater onsite; water pollution discharge permit violations at the steel mill’s wastewater treatment facility; various air pollutants; and expansions of the Grey’s Point landfill in violation of the Consent Decree.
If the owners of the site don’t address the issues within 90 days, the groups plan on filing an action in federal district court.
You can read the full letter from CBF announcing their intention to sue here.
One Response to “Chesapeake Bay Foundation Threatens To Sue Maryland Department of Environment”
Eye On Annapolis on 29 May 2009 at 12:36 pm #
I wonder if litigation, rather than cooperation, is what it is going to take to get people serious about the Bay? It is a finite resource for sure!