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  4. Opposition to Coal Ash in Maryland Likely a Harbinger for the Country

Opposition to Coal Ash in Maryland Likely a Harbinger for the Country

Date: September 7, 2009

Source: News Room

A plan by Constellation Energy (Baltimore, MD), a utility company, to dispose of up to 650,000 tons of coal ash per year at a chemical company landfill near Hawkins Point, MD is drawing local concern. According to the Baltimore Sun, residents fear that the ash, which contains a variety of toxic substances, would pollute local groundwater and threaten the Patapsco River less than a mile away. Millennium Inorganic Chemicals, which operates the landfill, has applied for a state permit to accept up to 7.4 million tons of coal ash on a 65-acre tract of the site. Constellation has had to truck its waste to landfills in Virginia and Western Maryland at a cost of $1 million per year since 2007, after the groundwater surrounding old quarries where it had stored the ash had become contaminated, forcing the company to pay $1 million in fines and $54 million settlement to local residents. The state subsequently tightened its regulations to require that ash be disposed in lined sanitary landfills. Maryland Department of the Environment spokeswoman Dawn Stoltzfus said the state agency imposed its own rules on ash disposal last year after waiting nine years for the EPA to act. Local residents and activists would rather that MDE delay awarding a permit until the US EPA finishes drafting federal regulations of coal ash, which they hope will be more stringent, perhaps regulating coal ash as a hazardous waste instead. See also: "Regulating Coal Ash," (http://www.wasteinfo.com/cgi-bin/search/search.pl?start=0&perPage=24&search=coal+ash). "Dumping coal ash at Hawkins Point opposed," (www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bal-md.flyash07sep07,0,7283856.story).

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