CLICK TO ENLARGE. Source: Toxic Release Inventory, EPA.

by MARK REUTTER
The Sparrows Point steel mill is discharging pollutants into Baltimore’s outer harbor under a state permit that expired 45 months ago and has not been updated since 2001, a review of Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) records shows.

The failure of MDE to review and reissue pollution permits “in a timely manner” was one of the systemic regulatory lapses cited  by environmental groups who yesterday called on the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to take over the state water permit program to protect the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.

Eliza Smith Steinmeier, director of Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper, called Sparrows Point “a big example of the systematic failure of MDE to effectively administer the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System,” which controls wastewater coming out of factory outfalls and sewage pipes.

Read the rest of this entry »

Maxine Thompson and Phyllis Seward by Bear Creek. Photo by Mark Reutter.

by MARK REUTTER

      Phyllis Seward is not surprised by the Maryland Port Administration pollution study showing that Turners Station is the community most affected by contaminated water coming from Sparrows Point. Born and raised there, Seward has watched her community’s quality of life deteriorate under a pall of pollution.

     “We’ve been bombarded by land and sea for years — no, make that decades,” Seward said.

     Turners Station, tucked into the southwest corner of Dundalk, is dwarfed by the steel mill that looms to the east on Bear Creek. The mill is the reason for the community’s existence and has been the cause of much of its distress, according to Seward.

     “I’ve seen our beaches close and watched fish die,” she said. “The whole marine atmosphere has changed.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Louis Konopacki crabs and fishes on Bear Creek and worries about pollution from the nearby mill.

Story and photos by FERN SHEN
A meeting Tuesday night in Edgemere suggests the stakes are getting higher and the tension is ratcheting up, in the communities near the Sparrows Point steel mill, as environmental groups threaten to sue state and federal officials over pollution from the mill and residents mount a separate class action lawsuit.

Members of the audience of about 25 people expressed anger when they heard the results of the latest testing conducted by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation who, together with the Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper, are planning legal action to get the government to enforce a 1997 consent decree.

A CBF scientist said she had recently tested the sediment in the shallow waters near the mill, where people might crab, fish or swim, and found these areas to be just as contaminated with toxic chemicals and metals as the deeper waters.

“We went into shallow places. It was amazing. Here’s a ladder into the water, here’s a slide. And (the contamination is) at levels that exceed some human health thresholds,” said senior water quality scientist Beth McGee, who presented preliminary results of the sampling she conducted in May.
((CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly attributed quotes from Dave Polanowski to John Cirri, who did not attend the meeting. Polanowski was also misidentified in a photo caption. Baltimore Brew regrets the error.))
Read the rest of this entry »

Tyler Chambers, 13, fishing at Chesterwood Park, less than a mile from the Sparrows Point steel mill. Photo by Fern Shen.

A special report by MARK REUTTER
Something wasn’t right with the government-ordered cleanup of the Sparrows Point steel mill. The tip-off for Beth L. McGee, senior water quality scientist for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, was the level of contamination in sediment samples brought to light last year not by state or federal regulators, but by a third party.

The new sediment tests indicated that environmental conditions in the waterways near the Point had not improved and, in fact, many hazardous chemicals were in greater concentrations than what was reported back in 1996.

AES Energy Corp., which had commissioned the tests as part of its effort to put a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal at Sparrows Point, found sediments in the Patapsco River laced with chromium, copper, lead, mercury, zinc and other toxic metals.

“The results were alarming,” McGee said, “because they were higher than samples that had been previously collected in the harbor, including around the steel mill.” Read the rest of this entry »

Sparrows Point, 1953. Photo courtesy Bethlehem Steel Corp.

By MARK REUTTER
Patapsco Neck has long been the greasy elbow of greater Baltimore, a dumping ground for hazardous wastes and cancer-causing metals produced by the steel mill at the boot of the peninsula, then spread by wind and water to surrounding communities.

A recent report by the Baltimore Sun’s Tim Wheeler — that the Sparrows Point mill has allegedly failed to live up to a 1997 agreement to clean up contaminated soil and ground water around its 2,500-acre facility — is part of a long history of regulatory neglect by state officials.

It was neglect that flourished at a time when everyone, from Johns Hopkins University experts to Dundalk homeowners, was predisposed to downplay dirty discharges from the area’s largest employer. Read the rest of this entry »