Chesapeake Bay Foundation to appeal Sparrows Point ruling

Environmental groups are appealing a federal judge's ruling that the owners of the Sparrows Point steel mill need only do a limited search for offshore pollution from the plant.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation and its legal partners, including the Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper, have filed notice with the U.S. District Court in Baltimore of their intention to appeal a decision by Judge J. Frederick Motz accepting a plan by the steel plant's current owner, RG Steel, to test for contamination no more than 50 feet into the Patapsco River and Bear Creek.

Though federal and state regulators endorsed that plan, the Annapolis-based environmental group contends a more comprehensive investigation is needed. Recent tests found bottom-dwelling aquatic creatures died when exposed to sediment pulled from the creek 1,000 feet offshore, the foundation said.

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