03/20/2014
Clean Chesapeake Coalition calls out EPA
Clean Chesapeake Coalition, of which Cecil County is a member, is asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to insert itself into the re-licensing process for the Conowingo Dam. The coalition hopes to force Exelon Generation, which owns and operates the dam, to pay for removing silt built up behind the structure.
CHESTERTOWN — The organization representing Cecil and other Maryland counties concerned with the health of the Chesapeake Bay has sent a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency seeking better efforts on the bay’s behalf.
Charles “Chip” MacLeod, general counsel to the Clean Chesapeake Coalition, said Tuesday the letter urges the EPA to make Exelon take responsibility for the removal of tons of silt behind the Conowingo Dam. The letter, which is signed by Kent County Commissioner Ronald H. Fithian on behalf of the coalition, asks Gina McCarthy, EPA administrator, for a meeting with her and her staff “to discuss the environmental impacts and threats related to the state of the reservoir above the Conowingo Dam in the lower Susquehanna River.”
The goal is to get an environmental focus on the dam’s relicensing process, MacLeod said.
“The EPA is not as engaged as they should be,” MacLeod said.
He said Exelon Generation, current owner and operator of the dam straddling the Susquehanna River and connecting Cecil and Harford counties, has been in the process of renewing its license with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission since 2009.
“FERC has to give the license. Their chief focus is energy, not environment,” he said.
MacLeod said the EPA, however, should be using this time as an opportunity to force the issue of a clean up.
“Exelon wants a 46-year license,” MacLeod said. “Nobody is disputing they run a good dam. But above the dam is basically a stormwater management pond and it’s full.”
According to MacLeod, an opportunity to address the silt was lost when state and federal regulators approved the merger of Exelon with Constellation Energy in 2012.
“Wouldn’t that have been a good time to say as part of the merger you have to clean up the bay?” MacLeod said, noting that 41 conditions to the merger include nothing about the issue. “Something’s out of whack. Where’s the outrage?”
He said if a construction site operated without erosion measures in place, it would be noticed and action would be taken.
“Look at what we put people through to stop a little run-off,” he said. “When you’re building something, you’re supposed to put up silt fence. But we’re ignoring the top of the bay.”
Fithian also noted the irony.
“The Susquehanna River is the single largest source of pollution loading to the Chesapeake Bay and because all that flows down the mighty Susquehanna flows through the Conowingo Dam, the dam is a significant point source of sediment and nutrient pollution,” Fithian’s letter states. “So far EPA’s involvement in this once in a generation opportunity to give the Chesapeake Bay a fighting chance has been disappointing.”
MacLeod said since the dam was built more than 80 years ago, every utility in its charge has generated electricity, which is now sold at a profit to the PJM grid.
“The dam was built at time when the government was incentivizing construction,” he said. “They were given long licenses to recover the costs.”
With their license set to expire in August, MacLeod said Exelon should be required to participate in funding the cost of the silt removal.
“Nobody’s worried about putting the cost on the taxpayers,” he said.
Bob Judge, spokesman for Exelon, said the utility giant chose not to comment on the matter. Exelon officials said previously that the build up has no effect on power generation.
Maryland’s Senate voted unanimously last month to approve Senate Joint Resolution 4, which would urge Congress to charge the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers with a study of the best way to remove the growing pile of silt. Companion legislation in the House of Delegates is stalled in the House Rules Committee.
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