Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

by MARK REUTTER

     A widely anticipated Maryland Port Administration study mapping pollution coming from the Sparrows Point steel mill confirms that cancer-causing benzene has infiltrated Baltimore harbor and may have migrated to shorefront communities through harbor currents and tides.

     The report, dated Nov. 2009, has not yet been posted on the agency’s website or publicly released. The Brew obtained a copy from sources.

     The 202-page report confirms earlier studies that benzene and other harmful substances, including naphthalene, lead, arsenic, vanadium and toluene, have been leaking into Baltimore harbor from the mill. Using “chemical fingerprinting,” the researchers traced the contamination back to an abandoned coke oven plant.

     Moving beyond previous studies, the report conducted by EA Engineering of Sparks, Md., developed a model that hypothesized that measurable levels of benzene have spread through the outer harbor from the Francis Scott Key Bridge to the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.

     Most affected is the blue-collar community of Turners Station. The report estimates that 2 to 3 times the maximum federal drinking water level of benzene may have migrated toward the community, which is located on Bear Creek near the Key Bridge. Lower levels of benzene have likely reached the Brandon Shores/Riviera Beach area of Anne Arundel County and the Lodge Forest/Fort Howard district of Baltimore County, according to the researchers.

CLICK TO ENLARGE: Model projecting the benzene concentrations coming from Sparrows Point. Turners Station is at upper center, Brandon Shores/Riviera Beach at lower left, and Fort Howard/Lodge Forest at middle and upper right. Benzene concentrations 2 and below are under the federal drinking water limit. Concentrations 3-5 are at the upper limit. Readings above 5 are over the federal maximum. EA Engineering

     The study found that groundwater flowing into the harbor was contaminated by dissolved chemicals, most notably benzene and naphthalene, coming from a coke oven plant closed in 1991. The toxins leached into the soil and entered into groundwater streams that carried the dissolved chemicals beneath the steel plant into the harbor.

     For the first time, a map (below) shows the areas directly impacted by the contaminated groundwater seepage. A large harbor inlet, known as the turning basin, has been tainted by chemicals coming from the groundwater streams, as well as harbor waters bordering Coke Point, the report says.

CLICK TO ENLARGE: Hatched areas show harbor water impacted by high concentrations of benzene and other chemicals. Green border shows where tainted groundwater from the abandoned coke oven plant (center of peninsula) mixes with harbor water. EA Engineering

     The researchers took sediment samples from 18 harbor locations near the steel plant. To determine the source of the chemical contamination, the researchers looked at the fluoranthene/pyrene ratios of the samples. Levels above 1 indicated that the contaminants came from steelmaking operations, while ratios under 0.8 indicated sources other than steelmaking.

     The samples linked the sediment chemicals to steelmaking, specifically the process of making coke from coal in the coke oven plant. The researchers did additional “forensic fingerprinting” to determine that other sediment contaminants near Sparrows Point did, in fact, come from known steelmaking processes.

     The researchers did many soil borings alongside the harbor. Ample evidence of benzene contamination was noticeable from the sweet odor emanating from the wells (a telltale sign of benzene) and the oily deposits found on the boring pipes.

     The study was conducted earlier this year for the Port Administration. The agency is evaluating whether to buy the Coke Point area from Severstal North America, owner of Sparrows Point, for a dredge spoils containment facility.

    The site would be used to meet the agency’s 20-year needs for deepening and widening Baltimore’s navigational channels. Before any decision is made on a possible purchase, the agency sought an environmental evaluation of the property. The report to the agency is titled, “Site Assessment for the Proposed Coke Point Dredged Material Containment Facility at Sparrows Point.”

– Mark Reutter can be reached at reuttermark@yahoo.com.