-ANALYSIS-

This is not a story about shirtsleeves-rolled-up politicians expressing disgust at polluted beaches and demanding compensation from the corporation that caused the damage.

It’s a story of silence and political timidity.

Maryland’s top elected officials have scrupulously avoided taking a stand on the pollution of supposedly-protected harbor waters by Severstal Sparrows Point. This comes despite more than a year of publicity about widespread problems at the steel mill, which straddles communities with more than 20,000 Maryland residents and lies only three miles from the ecologically fragile Chesapeake Bay.

Just last month, a representative from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) likened the leakage of benzene from Sparrows Point into Baltimore harbor to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Groundwater samples have revealed concentrations of the known carcinogen as high as 100,000 times what is considered safe. A “benzene plume” has been detected migrating across the harbor toward the Baltimore County community of Turners Station.

Mum’s the word

One might think that such findings would stir the Maryland political establishment to action. But with the exception of Dundalk state Senator Norman Stone and Delegate Johnny Olszewski, no officeholder in Annapolis or Washington has shown more than fleeting interest in why, 13 years after a court-ordered cleanup, the steel mill continues to spew out pollutants.

Let’s start with Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley. He’s made cleaning up Chesapeake Bay a key platform of his administration. But a google search of his press releases and statements indicate that he has not addressed the swirling controversy over Sparrows Point pollution. This contrasts to Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who recently demanded answers about large piles of steel wastes found at an ArcelorMittal plant along Lake Michigan.

And while O’Malley made a trip on MARC last month to apologize for a stalled train that inconvenienced 900 passengers, he’s never gone to Turners Station or Dundalk to apologize to residents who have been affected, directly or indirectly, by the mill’s pollution for years.

The normally loquacious C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger, who represents the 2d Congressional District that includes eastern Baltimore County, has been similarly reticent. The ex-Baltimore County Executive came out vocally against a proposed LNG plant at Sparrows Point, but has not made any public comments, according to our search, on steel mill pollutants migrating towards the houses of residents he represents.

Bob Ehrlich represented the 2d Congressional District between 1995 and 2002 and was governor between 2003 and January 2007. Seeking a return to the governor’s mansion on the Republican ticket, Ehrlich and his team have leveled various charges of incompetence against O’Malley. Sparrows Point has not been on their list.

Perhaps Ehrlich has commented on the controversy on his talk radio show. If so, we ask his campaign to provide us with a clip.

You can count on me?

Democrat Barbara Mikulski, running for her fifth term as U.S. Senator, calls herself one of the leading defenders of Chesapeake Bay. “You can count on me to fight to protect the Bay and protect the jobs that depend on it,” she says on her website.

We have not found any statements by the senator addressing Sparrows Point pollution. Mikulski sits on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that approves EPA’s annual budget. In other words, she has clout over national environmental priorities, if she chooses to exercise it.

Junior Senator Ben Cardin sits on the Senate Environment Committee. He has championed a bill to reduce the amount of pollution entering Chesapeake Bay by year 2025, but we have not found any Cardin statement regarding pollution taking place right now at Sparrows Point.

The White House has made restoring the health of Chesapeake Bay a top priority. Calling the bay “a national treasure,” President Obama issued an executive order in May 2009 pledging EPA to lead state governments to achieve improvements to the Bay watershed.

“Through President Obama’s leadership and the commitment of many active stakeholders, we have an historic opportunity to restore the environmental health of these waters and the vibrant economy of this community,” EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson said at the time.

EPA has stepped up pressure on Severstal Sparrows Point to install pumping stations that will extract some benzene from soil and groundwater. But the agency has so far stayed within the confines of the 1997 consent decree, widely discredited as having insufficient enforcement powers.

Study follows study

Last month, Sen. Norm Stone asked EPA official Andrew Fan why regulators were requesting yet another study of pollution when the Maryland Port Administration had already established that serious contamination was coming from the site.

“We’ll be here in 5-10 years … and we’ll still be studying this. We have to get it done. No more studies,” Stone said.

Fan replied that EPA’s rules require the completion of a full panoply of studies before the agency determines a “final remedy” for reducing pollution.

Such studies have been going on ever since the steel mill signed the 13-year-old decree with EPA and the Maryland Department of the Environment pledging to reduce pollution.

Unless someone of the stature of President Obama or Governor O’Malley breaks through this logjam – say, touches down on the “beaches” of Sparrows Point and demands action and accountability – expect more of the same.

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