Fly ash bill dies in committee

A state bill that would have required more safeguards for the disposal of fly ash has died in a legislative committee.

Current laws do not require such provisions, but the committee thought it was premature to approve the legislation because the Maryland Department of the Environment is in the process of creating its own new fly ash regulations, Mr. McConkey said during the meeting held at Kaufmanns's Tavern in Gambrills.

Fly ash is a byproduct of burning coal. From 1995 through September of last year, Baltimore Gas & Electric Co., and later Constellation Energy Group, dumped about 200,000 tons of fly ash a year into a Gambrills surface mine owned by BBSS Inc. and operated by Reliable Contracting Co.

A county Health Department investigation revealed that groundwater and wells in the area around the site have been contaminated with an array of heavy metals, some carcinogenic, because of the dumping.

Constellation subsequently was fined $1 million by the MDE and is the target of a class-action lawsuit filed by residents.

County government also has enacted legislation that bans future fly ash dumping for one year.

The GCC, an umbrella group that represents 33 different organizations, unanimously voted to support measures that would extend the duration of the fly ash ban.

Mr. McConkey said he is considering reintroducing the bill next year if the MDE's new regulations are inadequate.

"It is my definite intention to say to the (Environmental Matters) committee that we will give (the MDE) another nine months and then intro-duce it next year," he said.

Also during the meeting, Rob Scrivener, general manager of Reliable Contracting, said his company is seeking permits to mine a new section of the company's land.

Usually, Reliable mines sand and gravel from the site for road and pavement projects. However, the new material will be used to fill craters left in the surface mine from earlier excavations, Mr. Scrivener said.

Originally, the holes were going to be filled with fly ash, but Constellation and Reliable have voluntarily decided to stop dumping the substance in Gambrills.

Eventually, when the holes in the mine are filled, the land will be developed with an 88-acre mix of condos, shops, restaurants, a movie theater and a Wegmans grocery store.

In other action, the GCC also voted to support the group's former president and current planning and zoning chairman, Torrey Jacobsen Jr., following a story in The Sunday Capital that reported that Mr. Jacobsen may have violated state ethics rules.

The story said Mr. Jacobsen may have violated ethics rules when he asked a state legislative committee to amend Mr. McConkey's bill to prohibit development on top of fly ash landfills in Gambrills.

Mr. Jacobsen, who presented himself as a small business owner, didn't tell the committee that he's also a registered lobbyist for the Mid-Atlantic Retail Food Industry Joint Labor Management Fund - a group that represents unionized grocery stores.

Nor did he say that the amendment he was supporting would stop his client's competitor, Wegmans, from opening a new store.

"It looks like Greenberg Gibbons wrote the article and gave it to The Capital," said Bob Brennan, vice president of the council.

Greenberg Gibbons Commercial is the development company that is planning to build the store Mr. Jacobsen has opposed.

"The motion is to support Torrey against the statements that were made in The Capital. Some of them were fair, and some were not," said Percy Sussex, a representative from Crofton Meadows.

The council voted in favor of the resolution, 9-1-1, with Secretary Bess Sharland and Harry Sinclair opposing and abstaining, respectively.