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.
Sparrows Point’s NPDES permit expired on February 28, 2006. MDE spokesman Jay Apperson said yesterday that the agency is working on a renewal of the permit with Severstal, the mill’s owner. He added in an e-mail, “MDE’s timeline for issuance of this permit is currently early spring [2010]. Since these negotiations are ongoing, we are not in a position to go into more detail.”
In its last two reporting years (2006 and 2007), Sparrows Point released 60,101 pounds of toxic chemicals into Bear Creek, Jones Creek, Old Road Bay and the Patapsco River, the water bodies that surround the mill.
This release was 37 percent higher than the amount of chemicals released in the two previous years, 2004 and 2005, but considerably less than the discharges in 2001-02.
The release of such substances as chromium, copper, lead, manganese and nickel came from seven outfalls that empty into harbor waters.
The outfalls are manmade canals typically about 20 feet wide and about two or three feet deep. They daily discharge several hundred million gallons of wastewater used for various production processes and for the cleaning and cooling of hot gases.
Most of the discharged water was originally harbor water, brought into the mill by intake canals. But an average of 40 million gallons a day comes as treated sewage from the Back River Waste Water Treatment Plant owned by Baltimore city.
The NPDES permit restricts the amount and kind of pollutants that can be discharged daily and monthly in the wastewater. According to yesterday’s petition by the Waterkeepers, Sparrows Point violated its permit 17 times between January 2007 and June 2009. But despite being out of compliance for “six of the last 12 [fiscal] quarters,” the Waterkeepers said, “MDE has not imposed any penalties on the facility.”
The 58-page petition faulted MDE for failing to perform proper inspections and enforcement of about 13,000 NPDES permit holders statewide. State inspectors visited only 20 percent of businesses and industries with permits in 2008 and took 23 percent fewer enforcement actions against permit violators than the year before.
“The current status of Maryland’s inefficient and underperforming NPDES program should not be tolerated,” the petition concluded. “It is time for serious and real change that will make the most of new initiatives and additional funding planned for Chesapeake Bay restoration efforts.”
The petitioners asked EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to revoke Maryland’s authority to issue the permits, which was delegated by EPA to the state in 1989.
In a letter to the University of Maryland Environmental Law Clinic, which helped prepare the petition, MDE
Secretary Shari T. Wilson said the agency has been plagued with a shortage of funds to handle an increasingly heavy workload mandated by new environmental laws.
There are 12 major sewer plants and 16 major industries in Maryland, including Sparrows Point, that currently operate on expired permits. The facilities are required to adhere to the conditions of the expired permits. She called the delay in issuing new permits “undesirable and needs to be addressed.”
Wilson said that more funding for the program would be helpful, but added, “I must be realistic given the current economic conditions” and looming deficit that face the state government.
MDE spokesman Apperson said the future Sparrows Point NPDES permit will reflect regulations involving the Total Maximum Daily Load, or TMDL, for Baltimore Harbor and Chesapeake Bay. In addition, he said, “we [MDE] need to address nutrient loads in the most effective manner possible, given the water quality challenges we face.”
– Mark Reutter can be reached at reuttermark@yahoo.com
