Town Utilities Manager Bob Sipes announced during the Town Council meeting on June 16 that UM Shore Health Systems accepted the Town’s request to hold a public meeting on Wednesday, June 25, 7:30 PM at Town Hall.
The open meeting will be about the proposed pilot program designed to capture underground oil near the Shore Medical Center facility.
The oil spill is the result of a break in a heating fuel line in 1986 and it is estimated that 16,000 gallons of oil remain in the ground threatening to contaminate the town’s drinking water. Petroleum residue has already been detected in wells outside the hospital area.
The plan calls for the use of a non-hazardous, biodegradable product—Ivy Sol—to be added to the wells to dissolve the oil, then pump it out.
Sipes added that at this point Shore Health has submitted a revised plan to Maryland Department of Environment. The revisions were requested by the Town in order to safeguard the test site from more oil seepage during the testing process. One addition to the original proposal is that four wells rather than six be included in the test and that the recovery well be operated during the entire time of the test.
The entirety of the plan will not be known until after MDE approves it.
Bob Sipes explains the current state of the proposed pilot project here.
Jen Mulligan, Chestertown Clerk says
The Shore Regional Health briefing is scheduled for Wednesday, June 25, 2014 at 7:30 p.m.