Update: The Most Chronic Patuxent Violators

adil — Wed, 04 May 2011 22:43:14 +0000

It is no secret that most if not all of the large continuous sources of discharge pollution into our river stems from enterprises that have a permit to discharge into the river. Early in 2010 we began a collaboration with the Natural Resources Defense Council to research state and federal records of enterprises with permits to discharge into the Patuxent and determine which of those were chronic, persistent or egregious permit violators. The mission was to raise vigilance in order to bring these polluters to justice or compel them to operate within the lawful confines of their state issued operating permits. The process was daunting. It began with legal intern Martin Saunders spending untold hours combing the online EPA database known as ECCO. After compiling a list of on record violators, a series of records requests were sent to the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) to review the Discharge Monitoring Reports as well as other records related to operations and compliance. Reviewing the volumes of requested files required many visits to the MDE reading room, reams of copying paper and countless hours searching through the files. What emerged was a pattern of specific permits that either have frequent facility problems or a few that appear to have fallen between the cracks such that they are either not being closely regulated or do not reflect the ability to comply with their permits without some form of intervention. To the extent that some of these facilities are operated for profit, and their lack of compliance transfers certain costs or burden onto taxpayers, part of our follow on work has involved challenging polluters who do so openly with a clear financial incentive to continue operating outside of either the strict letter or the intent of the law. A detailed discussion of the problems, investigations and solutions would take up more space than we have here but for now, here is the list of known violators who emerged from this exhaustive process: Arcal Chemicals, Dorsey Run Advanced WWTP, Fort Meade WWTP, Harwood Landfill Inc., Maryland Manor Mobile Homes, MD & VA Milk Producers Coop Association, Mirant Chalk Point LLC, Parkway WWTP, Patuxent Wildlife Research, Piney Orchard WWTP and Western Branch WWTP.

2008 Patuxent Report Card

admin — Sat, 09 May 2009 23:04:06 +0000

The 2008 Report card was produced and released in March of 2009. It was prepared in collaboration with the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Studies: 2008 Patuxent Report Card (672)

Patuxent Riverkeeper » Water Quality Reports

Update: The Most Chronic Patuxent Violators

2008 Patuxent Report Card