Energy Firm's Dumping Sows Anxiety in Gambrills
As Residents Use Bottled Water, County Weighs Ban

By William Wan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 29, 2007

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.

After complaints, Constellation started testing some of the private wells but stopped when the county began its own testing as part of an eight-month investigation. Of 83 wells tested, county health officials found wells serving 45 households to be contaminated. Ten of those, including Greenleaf's well, had dangerous levels of metals.

Cadmium, which can damage the kidneys, was found to be three times the Environmental Protection Agency standard. Thallium, which in large amounts causes hair loss and vomiting, was also found to be triple the EPA standard. Arsenic, which can be poisonous and cause cancer, was found to be more than twice the EPA standard.

"The only reason it wasn't a public health catastrophe is that thousands of people within blocks of the site were already on public water," said Anne Arundel Health Officer Frances B. Phillips.

The findings left Greenleaf's family and their neighbors both angry and fearful.

One of Greenleaf's sons, Greg, 57, abandoned his vegetable garden after realizing it had been watered for years with well water. Many in his family began taking shorter showers and quickly drying off in an attempt to prevent the water from seeping into their pores. At Greg's house and his brother Stan's next door, green corrosive patches have marred the faucets. Both brothers have replaced their water heater and faucets twice in the past two years because of corrosion.

At a County Council meeting last week, Constellation representatives said they have taken precautions over the years to avoid contamination, such as leaving a layer of soil and clay between the ash and groundwater. But, they said, storm water accumulated in puddles on the surface and leaked into the ash, causing the metals to leach into the well water.

Constellation continued to dump the fly ash even after the contamination was found 11 months ago. But in a "gesture of good faith," the company last week voluntarily halted dumping at the Gambrills site. Company officials called the halt temporary, while it negotiates with the Maryland Department of the Environment on how to fix the problems. For now, Constellation is trucking the ash to Richmond and King George County in Virginia, at a cost of $1 million a month.

Regardless of the outcome Monday, the affected residents and their supporters say it will not be enough. "There has not been any health study of the people impacted by this," said Phillips, the county health officer. "We don't know if they might now have kidney problems, cancer or anything else."

It is unclear whether the contamination in the groundwater can be reversed and, if so, how long it would take. Constellation has promised to pay for the most severely affected households to be connected to public water, but that could take months. This week, the company connected hoses to a fire hydrant to bring clean water to those residents.

"Right now, they're promising the world to us, hoping we'll shut up," Keith Greenleaf said. "But I don't care if they bring us a train full of water tomorrow, we are talking about health problems here."