County asks state to block fly ash dump
County asks state to block fly ash dump (Maryland Gazette):
County Executive John R. Leopold asked Gov. Martin O’Malley yesterday to halt plans for a fly ash dump along the Anne Arundel County-Baltimore city border.
“Although the landfill itself is located in Baltimore city, the site is less than 1,000 feet from its border with Anne Arundel County and in close proximity to the surface waters of Swan Creek,” Leopold wrote in the letter to O’Malley.
John R. Leopold along with “Del. Steve Schuh, R-Gibson Island, and Sen. Bryan Simonaire, R-Pasaden”, and some residents were at a meeting in Brooklyn on the ‘storm water discharge permit’ that would be needed for the landfill. (EEEK!)
Mr. Leopold rightly has asked that determination of this fly ash/coal ash dump be postponed until the EPA, which is ‘on track’ to make a determination by the end of the year in regard to whether “fly ash is a hazardous material and should be disposed as such.”
Constellation Energy is the company that is requesting the fly ash dump site and Mr. Leopold reminded “of the situation in Gambrills, where hazardous substances in private wells were found to be linked to a Constellation fly ash dump.” (OUCH! and well done Mr. Leopold!)
From the Washington Post article entiled “Energy Firm’s Dumping Sows Anxiety in Gambrills” in 2007 on this issue of Gambrills when fly ash was found in dust in homes and on dishes of residents:
Constellation, which has delivered bottled water to Greenleaf and neighbors for 11 months, acknowledges the contamination but disputes the severity of the problem. Last week, the company halted the dumping temporarily and is in talks with the state about how to clean it up.
Putting off the decision to build yet another power plant (and one of the largest in Virginia) — until the EPA makes its determination later this year on fly ash — would be the wise and prudent course of action that should be made by the Town Council of Dendron, VA and the Board of Supervisors of Surry County on behalf of the whole of Hampton Roads in Virginia regarding the ODEC proposed 1500MW Cypress Creek Power Plant (and it’s corresponding fly ash/coal ash dump/landfill) that they want to put right in our tiny town’s “backyard” particularly considering the closeness to the homes and water supply in Dendron, as well as the wetlands of the Blackwater River system and Cypress Swamp.
