Efforts to clarify roles and responsibilities related to the State of Maryland’s clean up efforts of the remaining oil from a storage tank leak at the local hospital three decades ago has left town officials frustrated with the lack of responsiveness of the state’s Department of Environment.
The town has sought financial assurances that the town wells will be protected from any oil residue that could escape the remediation process. After meeting with DOE officials in November of last year, there has been no response to Chestertown’s repeated efforts to document that responsibility.
In this video, Bob Sipes, Chestertown’s Utilities Manager, outlines the status of the MOE remediation process and highlights his continued concerns on the methodology being used to protect to town’s water supply. Mayor Cerino then outlines the town’s next steps, including the following letter to State Senator Stephen S. Hershey requesting a Local Courtesy Bill to protect the public water supply.
Here is the Letter.
David Foster says
I want to express my sincere appreciation to Mayor Cerino and especially Bob Sipes for their diligence in pursuing this matter. Unfortunately, the behavior by our Hospital management in withholding vital information regarding the oil spill has been prologue to its performance on restructuring the Hospital itself. I believe that this clearly demonstrates that we must seek what ever public, legal and legislative support we can muster to assure that MDE and Shore Regional Health become more transparent.
I also want to encourage all readers interested in the oil spill to Google the document referenced by Bob Sipes. The precise title of the EPA publication is: “How to Effectively Recover Free Product at Leaking Underground Storage Tank Sites” and the chapter you want is “Chapter III Behavior of Hydrocarbons in the Subsurface. Scroll to page 7 of that chapter to see the numbers Bob referenced and MDE ignored.
Robert Ortiz says
Perhaps it would be useful to alert local and national media that another community’s water supply is in jeopardy. Given the fiasco in Flint, Michigan, I would think that the state, the hospital and the University of Maryland would want to avoid such negative publicity.
Fred Keer says
Although I have not reviewed the most recent reports concerning the Hospital Remediation I agee completely with Mr. Sipes assessment voiced in this video One point Mr. Sipes explained is the worst case senerio for injection projects. That is, the injection of a surfactant without the complete recovery of the affected groundwater. The remaining surfactant will continue to mobilize contaminants and help to transport them down gradient; in this case toward the town water supply. There are a number of technical reasons why the current approach is inappropriate and will not be effective and has the potential to do more harm than good. I have always been against the injection of surfactants at this site and if I were still the MDE authority at the site this procedure would not have seen the light of day. I do understand the towns desire to have put in place financial guarantees in case the town supply is affected in the future. That said, it is more important that the contaminants do not reach the supply in the first place. Of all the sites I oversaw during my tenior at MDE, Oil Control Program (I had Oil Control remediation responsibility for the entire Eastern Shore as well as input to sites on the Western Shore) this site worried me the most because of the potential for catastrophic results if handled improperly. It is difficult for the general public to comment on the remediation of sites such as this since the issues are scientifically complex and do not lend themselves to the sound bite approach in public meetings. As far as I am concerned, the public should insist that a scientifically defensible remediation process be followed. A site conceptual model needs to be documented and presented to all concerned parties. This model documents site conditions and the potential for those conditions to cause harm to all potential receptors (personnel, environment etc.). From this model which must be approved by all affected parties the next remediation steps can be planned and undertaken. Mr. Sipes is spot on and should receive as much support from the town as possible. I might add I agree with his comment about MDE oversite of State Agencies.