Basic Oxygen Furnace at Sparrows Point, where a court-ordered recycling unit has been out of service since 2008. (Photo courtesy of Severstal )

by MARK REUTTER

Three facilities hailed as crucial to reducing chemical and metal wastes at the Sparrows Point steel mill remain unfinished, out of service or never started — 13 years after the company signed a consent decree promising to install the equipment.

The failure to get these recycling projects in operation is a case study of the halting progress made by regulators in enforcing the 1997 Sparrows Point consent decree – the biggest in Maryland history – that was supposed to stop decades of pollution at the mill.

“Our hands are tied by a number of factors,” said Barbara Brown, coordinator of compliance for the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE). Among those factors? Squishy language in the decree.

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L Furnace, Sparrows Point's heart and soul. (Photo by Mark Reutter)

by MARK REUTTER

The Sparrows Point blast furnace, under investigation for a fireball of smoke and debris three months ago, is acting erratically and releasing untreated pollutants into the atmosphere.

The mammoth, 300-foot-high L furnace has “slipped” as many as 30 times a week in the last month, a quantum leap above its historic level, according to company sources. Furnace slips not only pose a danger to employees and equipment, but they often cause the furnace to “blow its stacks” — discharging polluted gas that bypasses the furnace’s clean-air scrubber.

Why is this happening? According to angry insiders, cheaper raw materials ordered by company owners in Russia are to blame.

“It’s like eating bad food and getting sick,” explained a source. “The furnace slips are belches, and the gluck coming from the stacks is the furnace puking.”

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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.

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by MARK REUTTER
     Environmental regulators are asking the Sparrows Point steel mill to prepare final cleanup procedures at three sites where chemical wastes have been buried for decades. Although the sites were part of a court-ordered cleanup in 1997, this is the first time regulators are requiring corrective measures, rather than open-ended studies, to handle the waste.

     The directive, however, does not address pollution leaking from the sites into Baltimore Harbor, raising the hackles of critics who say such “off-site” cleanup is required under the 12-year-old consent decree signed by Bethlehem Steel Corp., the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE).
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by MARK REUTTER

     The Chesapeake Bay Foundation is again threatening to sue environmental regulators and Severstal North America if action is not taken against illegal discharges of cancer-causing benzene and other pollutants into Baltimore harbor.

     Jon A. Mueller, CBF’s director of litigation, criticized state and federal agencies for not insisting that immediate measures be taken to stop the flow of toxic chemicals from the Sparrows Point steel mill. Mueller was responding to Severstal’s claim, reported last week in the Brew, that it was not responsible for investigating or cleaning up so-called “historical contamination” from the plant.

     “If the state and federal government fail to act in a timely way,” Mueller said, “we will be forced to take action.”

((Listen to Mark discuss our Sparrows Point coverage at 9 am tomorrow ( Tuesday) on Sheilah Kast’s Maryland Morning show, on WYPR FM.))

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