Constellation details fly ash cleanup

Constellation Energy Group is trying to upgrade a system that will neutralize fly ash contamination in Gambrills, but community members and politicians are skeptical of the utility company's work and doubtful that it will be effective.

At meetings yesterday with <i>The Capital</i> and again later at Kaufmann's Tavern with 25 community members, a lawyer working for Constellation detailed two techniques the company is using to damper the presence of heavy metals, some of which cause cancer, in underground water just west of the Village at Waugh Chapel.

The county and state officials say the contamination was caused by fly ash, a powdery byproduct from burning coal in power plants, that Baltimore Gas &amp; Electric Co. and later Constellation began dumping at a surface mine in 1995.

Both of the techniques Constellation is proposing have been used at the fly ash site before and have had their effectiveness questioned in a state-produced report.

And some saw last night's meeting as a chance for the electric company to highlight the strengths of its plan while glossing over weaknesses.

"This presentation was, in almost all respects, construed in a light most favorable to Constellation," said Councilman Jamie Benoit, D-Crownsville.

Pamela D. Marks, a lawyer for Constellation, said her client is trying to enhance the cap on top of the fly ash pit as well as expand a system that collects and removes contaminants from water flowing through there.

However, a June 2007 report by the Department of Natural Resources' Power Plant Research Program criticized these techniques, which have been in place for at least four years. The report said that water was able to seep into the fly ash either while it was being put into the dump or through the layer of topsoil and brush on top of it. A treatment system Constellation installed in 2004 will help but is "unlikely to fully resolve impacts" to groundwater, the PPRP report said.

This ultimately led to substances like arsenic, beryllium, thallium and lead seeping into an aquifer that people in the area use for drinking water, the report said.

Ms. Marks would not comment about the state's criticisms or say if she though they were on the mark.

"I'm not going to go into the PPRP report," she said.

The cleanup plan Constellation presented details two methods to remediate fly ash contamination. One is to make it impossible for water to actually come in contact with the substance by putting a liner on top of the fly ash pits, effectively making it waterproof. It can be either a clay or synthetic liner, but in the case of the Gambrills site it will likely be development; Greenberg Gibbons plans to build a new shopping center over a part of the dump site.

The other technique Constellation is considering is an expansion of a water treatment system near Evergreen Road and Route 3. The system currently pumps water up from the ground from five wells, treats it with a lime solution, removing contaminants, and then pours it into the nearby Towsers Branch. Constellation is considering adding a sixth well, allowing the system to treat more contaminated water.

Computer models made by the consultant and then reviewed by another company show that these two techniques will lessen the presence of heavy metals, Ms. Mark said.

However, computer models used before have been thoroughly unreliable, said Tim Berkoff, chairman of the environmental committee of Crofton First, a nonprofit group that has been monitoring the fly ash controversy. Past models have estimated that it would be decades for sulfate levels to exceed permitted levels but actual problems occurred just years later.

He said he is particularly concerned that Constellation is trying to use techniques that have failed in the past but has not stopped to figure out what previously made them ineffective.

He also said he was skeptical of the accuracy of Constellation's research; they used an in-house laboratory for measuring some water samples. Those results are not independent and might not be accurate, he said.

Furthermore, when the company does use an outside lab, the paperwork filed with the state doesn't show a chain of custody for water samples, a very common practice in scientific research, Mr. Berkoff said.

"I'm not impressed so far," he said.

Both of these techniques detailed last night are in a study Constellation submitted to the state for its review. The state will pick what it sees at the best plan and the electric company will work to build it. It is tough to predict a timeline or exact pricetag, but it will cost Constellation millions, Ms. Marks said.

Baltimore Gas &amp; Electric Co. began dumping fly ash, a byproduct of burning coal in power plants, into craters at the BBSS sand and gravel mine in 1995. In 1999, routine water sample tests showed that sulfate levels monitoring wells near the mines were above permitted limits, a hint that something potentially harmful was happening.

"Sulfate is associated with ash lechate," Ms. Marks said.

In October 2006 the county began testing privately owned drinking water wells and people in the area started using bottled water exclusively. In September 2007 Constellation voluntarily stopped sending fly ash to the Gambrills mine. But by then, 2.4 million tons of ash had been dumped there.

The contamination, which the county also said was caused by the fly ash, ultimately lead to the state fining Constellation $1 million, the third largest fine in the history of Maryland Department of the Environment.

This October, county legislators enacted a one-year ban on dumping fly ash at new locations. County Executive John R. Leopold has recently proposed an additional one-year extension to that law which, if enacted, would prohibit new dumping until Oct. 1, 2009.