Dangerously high levels of benzene and naphthalene, both carcinogens, have been leaking into Baltimore harbor for the last eight years from an abandoned facility at the Sparrows Point steel mill, according to reports by the mill’s own environmental consultant.

These reports were found in records examined by The Brew under the Maryland Public Information Act.

State and federal regulators were aware of this groundwater contamination since at least 2005, the records show.

But only recently did the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) start to take steps to curb it. Actual containment of the pollution is many months, if not years, away from completion, MDE officials acknowledge.

Last February, federal officials expressed alarm at the amount of contaminants going into Baltimore harbor via the groundwater seepage.

“In certain hot spots, the measured groundwater concentrations exceed 100,000 times the Maximum Contaminant Level for benzene and 1,000 times the MCL for naphthalene,” wrote Abraham Ferdas, an administrator at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Benzene, a highly flammable liquid in its natural state, was also found in harbor water that flows into the Chesapeake Bay, a particular cause for concern to EPA officials.

“The fact that benzene is measurable in the bay water is an indication that the pollutant loading rate from the Facility [Sparrows Point] is significant,” Ferdas wrote. “Typically, volatile organic compounds are rarely detectable in open water due to mixing, dilution and agitation of the large volume of receiving water.”

Sparrows Point is under a 1997 court decree that is supposed to clean up air and water pollution that has befouled Turners Station, Dundalk and other parts of southeast Baltimore county for years.

Officials from Severstal North America, the latest owner of the mill, did not respond to two e-mail requests for comment.

The leaks come from a coke oven plant – shut down after 80 years of operation – that has left behind soil contaminated by an estimated 100 chemicals, according to the Ferdas memo. “If the synergistic effect of all of the compounds is considered, the negative impact on harbor water may be considerable,” the February 19, 2009 memo concluded.

Along with the contamination levels noted in the report, there is some historic basis for concern that the pollutants could pose a threat not only to bay habitat, but to people who use the bay for boating, fishing and other recreation. Coke ovens have a long record of causing health and environmental problems. Coke oven workers had a high incidence of “black lung” disease and were exposed to benzene, which the federal government declared a carcinogen in 1987.

The Sparrows Point coke plant was closed in 1991 after repeated violations of the Clean Air Act. Also shut down were facilities that extracted benzene, naphthalene, anhydrous ammonia, sodium phenolate and other toxic chemicals from coal as it was cooked at 2,300 degrees F to make coke used in steelmaking.

The plant, now mostly razed, has no walls, berms or other barriers that separate it from the harbor. The nearby shoreline consists of jagged mounds of slag (a porous waste product of steel) mixed with cast-off pieces of metal, concrete demolition debris and dirt.

Regulators aware of pollution

Records reviewed by The Brew show that MDE has been aware of environmental hazards at the coke plant site for many years. In fact, the site was designated “a special study area” in the 1997 consent decree in which MDE and EPA agreed to drop legal action against Sparrows Point in return for the mill’s promise to clean up historic and current pollution.

But despite years of internal discussion, MDE did not require Sparrows Point to clean up the tainted area or a landfill that abuts the site. Mitch McCalmon, a MDE deputy director, has explained that cleaning up decades of pollution at the mill is a long-term project not subject to quick fixes.

Typically, “remediating” (or cleaning up) a contaminated site includes pumping out the tainted groundwater and placing barriers between the site and adjoining property. For example, an eight-foot-thick concrete berm was installed at the former Allied Chemical plant in downtown Baltimore to prevent chemicals from leaking into the Inner Harbor through surface runoff or groundwater seepage.

“If the synergistic effect of all of the compounds is considered, the negative impact on harbor water may be considerable” –  February 19, 2009 EPA memo.

On August 13, MDE administrator Horacio Tablada asked Severstal to develop a remediation system to “achieve hydraulic control of the contamination plumes” at the coke oven site. The remediation would include a “pump and treat” system to prevent further offsite release of benzene and other contaminants.

Plans to institute these controls are in a preliminary stage and it will take many months to test and install, Barbara H. Brown, MDE project coordinator, said.

The agency also asked Severstal to develop a work plan to sample harbor sediments and surface water for pollution.

Offsite sampling was required under the 1997 consent decree, but was repeatedly delayed by the steel mill with the concurrence of MDE. Mitch McCalmon said the agency agreed to the delays because it was involved with other environmental priorities at the mill.

Above ground: “zero emissions”

Currently, Sparrows Point is authorized to discharge a maximum of 0.69 pounds of benzene and 0.69 pounds of naphthalene per day via two surface outtake canals (“outfalls” 121 and 021) near the coke plant site.

The steel plant reported it released no benzene or naphthalene from these surface outfalls in its latest Toxic Release Inventory submitted to EPA. But below the surface, the situation is different.

Groundwater from the coke plant seeps through the porous slag embankments and mixes with harbor water through tidal action.

Hazardous waste stored or buried in soil is likely to leach down into the groundwater, forming what scientists call a contamination plume. Many studies show that such plumes extend away from unlined sites, sometimes migrating many hundreds of yards.

At Sparrows Point, the natural flow of groundwater is toward the harbor, both in a westward direction (toward the Patapsco River) and eastward (toward an inlet known as the turning basin).

Below: 158,000 times above drinking water level

MDE and EPA have not determined how many pounds of oily benzene and naphthalene may be seeping into the harbor.

But the discharges probably amount to several thousand pounds a year, based on the amount of contaminants recovered from a pumping operation at another plant site.

The highest concentration of benzene was detected in a groundwater sample located about 150 yards from outfall 021.

The benzene level detected there – 790 milligrams per liter (mg/l) – was 158,000 times above EPA’s 0 .005 mg/l standard for drinking water.

The sample was found in groundwater about 10 feet below the surface.

In samples taken nearby, concentrations as high as 390 mg/l of benzene were recorded. Groundwater as deep as 60 feet was found to be contaminated.

Chemical Stew

Samples were taken in 2001, 2002 and 2004 by URS Corp., environmental consultant for Sparrows Point. URS later took additional groundwater samples at the coke oven and adjoining Coke Point Landfill.

URS found high levels of chemicals in addition to benzene and naphthalene. For example, toluene and xylenes were found to exceed EPA’s benchmark for water cleanliness by 100 times or more in samples taken in 2005. (Toluene and xylenes are distilled from the coke-making process.)

Six other chemicals – fluorene, phenol, 2-methylnaphthalene, phenanthrene, bis (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, and ethylbenzene – exceeded EPA benchmarks by 10 times or more. Also found in the samples were arsenic, lead and vanadium.

URS concluded that groundwater from the coke plant was seeping through the porous slag embankments and mixing with harbor water through tidal action.

In a recent report, URS did not attempt to dispute that benzene may be settling at the bottom of the harbor, saying, “Severstal acknowledges MDE’s concern that offsite discharge of impacted groundwater may be impacting offsite [harbor] sediment.”

What showed up in the water

Preliminary tests of harbor surface water by URS showed concentrations of benzene ranging up to 60 times EPA’s drinking water standard. It was this surface-water contamination that prompted the EPA’s Ferdas to comment that the “pollutant loading rate” at Sparrows Point is “significant” since compounds such as benzene are usually diluted in large bodies of water, making them undetectable.

Robert J. Abate and Russell Becker, who handle environmental engineering at Severstal Sparrows Point, did not respond to two e-mail requests seeking comment on the groundwater reports. E-mail messages left with plant manager Thomas Russo and spokesperson Bette Kovach were not answered.

The URS reports add scientific evidence to a study by AES Energy Corp. that found that samples of harbor bottom sediment taken near the coke plant were laced with benzene and other hazardous substances.

The Brew disclosed the AES findings in an article last June.

Currently, Severstal operates one skimmer well to recover oil from the coke plant area.

The well recovered 30 gallons of oil in 2008 – a fraction of the expected outflow from groundwater streams – according to a February 2009 report sent to state regulators by Severstal.

• Mark Reutter is the author of Making Steel: Sparrows Point and the Rise and Ruin of American Industrial Might (2004).