Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold sharply criticized Gov. Martin O'Malley yesterday for striking down a bill that would have required the state to reimburse the county for a $100,000 investigation that found cancer-causing metals in private wells in Gambrills, calling the governor's veto an "offensive and irresponsible anti-environment action."
The veto - O'Malley's only one among 745 bills this year - was a stunning defeat for county officials, whose eight-month investigation helped persuade the Maryland Department of the Environment last summer to fine Constellation Energy and the operator of the 80-acre site $1 million and ordered them to clean up fly ash contamination.
Leopold said he would seek to have the utility company foot the bill.
FOR THE RECORD - An article in Friday's Metro section incorrectly reported the amount of fly ash dumped at an unlined gravel pit by Baltimore Gas & Electric's Brandon Shore plant over the past 12 years. The plant has deposited about 800,000 tons of the waste in the pit each year. The reference repeated errors previously made on editions of Oct. 2 and Nov. 30, 2007.
The Sun regrets the error.
"The state knew for years that the fly ash that Constellation Energy was dumping in Gambrills was contaminating the water of nearby homeowners, but if it were not for the well testing by the Anne Arundel County Health Department, the fly ash could very well be continuing to be deposited today," said Leopold, a Republican. "The governor's veto sends a chilling message to local governments that they should not be equal partners in the vital effort to protect people's health."
The Sun reported last August that MDE was aware of elevated sulfate concentrations - an indicator of possible combustion ash contamination - near the BBSS mining site as far back as 1998 and failed to fully evaluate the potential for harmful environmental effects.
The county Health Department later detected the metals in late 2006.
O'Malley said yesterday that he vetoed the bill Wednesday because it applied only to Anne Arundel County and could set a precedent for county governments to tap into state funds in certain cases.
The Democratic governor and other elected officials said they supported the county's efforts to get the money from Constellation.
"I'm sure if there's an opportunity to recover from the polluter, we'll make sure we attempt to do that," O'Malley said.
Constellation is also facing a lawsuit from a Gambrills resident, Gayle K. Queen, who filed a complaint in Baltimore Circuit Court last fall claiming that her husband, David, died of kidney failure last year after drinking water laced with lead, arsenic and other pollutants associated with "fly ash."
Her suit seeks to represent dozens of local residents in a class-action lawsuit that would make Constellation Energy pay unspecified damages for personal injuries and loss of property values.
