Energy Firm's Dumping Sows Anxiety in Gambrills

As Residents Use Bottled Water, County Weighs Ban

Laura Greenleaf has measured her life in 16.9-ounce bottles of water for nearly a year. She uses them to brush her teeth, wash her collard greens and rinse her utensils.

The most routine chores have become potential health hazards in her Anne Arundel County neighborhood ever since its wells were contaminated with fly ash from a nearby coal-burning plant.

Until last week, Constellation Energy Group had been dumping fly ash from its Glen Burnie plant in Greenleaf's Gambrills neighborhood for years, causing metals to leach into the groundwater and leaving residents with a chalky residue on dishes and worries about what the ash might be doing to their health.

Greenleaf, 75, said she noticed white patches in her mouth and on her lips and switched to disposable cups and plates. After she ran out, "I went back to using the dishes and the white stuff came right back in my mouth," she said. "No one knows what this water's done to us."

Constellation, which has delivered bottled water to Greenleaf and neighbors for 11 months, acknowledges the contamination but disputes the severity of the problem. Last week, the company halted the dumping temporarily and is in talks with the state about how to clean it up.

County officials, frustrated with the pace of the talks, are considering a one-year ban on any new fly-ash dumpsites. Even if the ban passes, it will not affect the Gambrills site, where dumping is legally permitted until next year.

Constellation and state officials "were aware of the hazards of the material and still allowed activity to continue. That to me is irresponsible," said Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold (R). "And now these are the same players in charge of fixing the problem."

Maryland Department of the Environment officials said that if by Monday they cannot reach an agreement with Constellation on how to clean up the fly ash, the agency will file a legal complaint. The county council is expected to vote the same day on the proposed ban.

Greenleaf and her family just want clean water.

"Every time you turn on the tap or open a bottle, you can't help thinking about it all over again," said Greenleaf's son Keith, 46. "It's like riding a roller coaster that won't stop."

The water problems for Greenleaf began about a year ago on the secluded property off a narrow dirt road near Fort Meade where she and her extended family have lived for more than a century. No one in her family thought much of it when trucks began hauling ash to the former sand and gravel mining site nearby in 1995. Nor did they know what fly ash was or that the power company was hauling in as much as 100 truckloads a day -- 280,000 tons a year -- to fill in the old mine's pits.

Then signs of trouble appeared: A strange taste and a sulfuric smell in the water. As it worsened, residents noticed a residue on their utensils, windows -- anything the water touched.