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.))

Many of the residents and local officials who came to the informational meeting, called by CBF and the Waterkeeper, appeared to be appreciative of advocates’ efforts and even applauded at one point.

“I’m getting tired of this, tired of living with this mess,” said Louis Konopacki, of Dundalk. “People in Dundalk are dying of cancer right and left.”

Meanwhile, one resident, Russell S. Donnelly, produced a document that raised the advocates’ eyebrows: a glossy anonymous flier that he said is one of many appearing on doorknobs in Turner’s Station, Dundalk and Edgemere over the past month. Showing a grim picture of a shuttered plant, the flier warns that dire consequences will result from the class action suit being perpared by Donnelly and others.

“Nearly 4,000 jobs are at risk in Sparrows Point now that Washington lawyer Bart Fisher has come to town, trolling for clients to kill manufacturing in Baltimore County,” warned the ominous-sounding doortag, whose origins were unclear. “Paid for by Save Our Jobs/ Baltimore County,” it read. “I couldn’t find any group by that name,” said Donnelly, who lives on Jones Creek and is a member of the Sparrows Point Action group, which is pursuing the class action against local polluters, with Fisher’s help.

Anonymous flier warning that pollution cleanup litigation would lead to a mill shut-down. (Click to enlarge.)

“I’d like to have a look at that flier,” CBF President William C. Baker said, after the meeting. During his presentation, Baker called on audience members to press state and federal officials to live up to the 12-year-old consent decree and stop air and water pollution from coming off the site and into the surrounding community.

“This is not a legacy our children have to be foreced to live up to — you can clean up the site,” Baker said. “You’re being asked to live with contamination you had nothing to do with.”

Decades of contamination, years of talk

On May 29, CBF and the Waterkeeper notified the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Maryland Department of the Environment and the current and former mill owners of their intent to sue in federal court to force them to determine what contamination is migrating off the site and what risks it poses to human health and the nearby ecology. . . and then to clean it up.  (The parties were not invited to last night’s town hall style meeting.)

At the center of the controversy is the toxic residue of more than a century of steel production at the mill, originally owned by the Bethlehem Steel Corp. and once the region’s largest employer.  The Waterkeeper and CBF have noted that groundwater at the mill has extremely high levels of the human carcinogen benzene and that other toxics and petroleum byproducts are seeping into the groundwater and into local waterways. Baltimore Brew reviewed test results going back to 1985 and found that hazardous metals and chemical contamination in bay and creek sediment near the mill actually appears to be increasing.

Current mill owner Severstal has said it is in compliance with the decree and vowed to “vigorously defend” against the lawsuit. MDE officials have said that Severstal has been acting properly under the decree and there are no immediate health threats. They also at one point suggested renegotiating the pact.

Who vented at the meeting

In addition to relating the latest test findings, Bay Foundation officials and Waterkeeper Eliza Steinmeier last night also conveyed their frustration with MDE, as they await a response from the government and the owners by the Aug.31 deadline. CBF attorney Jon Mueller said MDE has “fallen down on the job” of carrying out the consent decree. He complained that they have long known about, but failed to act on, a number of serious problems at the mill.

He cited ”production-grade levels of benzene” in mill groundwater and the findings of an EPA study of kish (metallic grit emanating from the steel plant) blowing offsite.

“They found, yes, kish is going into the neighborhood and guess what? It’s small enough to go into peoples’ lungs,” Mueller said. “How could you know this back in 2003 and here it is 2009 and you haven’t done anything about it?”

William C. Baker and Beth L. McGee, of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

Mueller complained that the apparently-expanding Grey’s Point landfill, which is near Bear Creek, ”doesn’t even have a silt fence to stop rain from washing soil into the water.”

“They (MDE) haven’t even gotten an adequate answer (from the owner) as to what the material is,” he said.

Several audience members also complained about the landfill, saying that homeowners or small businesses would never be allowed to have unlined dump piles next to a waterway. Wade Hamel, one of several individuals who have added their names to the CBF/Waterkeeper litigation, asked why state Critical Areas law aimed at Chesapeake Bay development doesn’t seem to apply to the mill.

“I don’t think it’s fair,” Hamel said. “There’s always been a double standard.”

Still, there was clearly also concern in the room about the subject raised in the anonymous flier: the effect of the two legal actions on jobs.

“Why now is this (litigation) coming up in the worst economy we’ve had since the depression?” said Chris Gangi. “How can you say it’s not going to affect peoples’ jobs?”

“That’s something the government ought to answer,” Baker said. “Why wasn’t it fixed in good economic times?”

Dave Polanowski.

The mill’s current business struggles were the backdrop for these remarks and others far more blistering. Attending the meeting but leaving early was mill worker Dave Polanowski, who began by chewing out the panelists.  ”I see nothing but another attack on Sparrows Point,” Polanowski said. ” To lose our jobs over this is ridiculous.”

Baker said that the litigation is aimed at cleaning up the mill, not shutting it down: “The last thing we want to do is put the steel mill out of business. (The company) has to be viable to clean up the site.”

Baker thanked Polanowski for his remarks, especially an offer to work with the groups toward both clean-up and job preservation. After coming to the podium, shaking Baker’s hand and leaving his name and number, Polanowski left the room.