Plans for a pilot program to extract heating oil caused by a 28-year old underground leak at the UM Shore Health Medical Center facility are being submitted to the Maryland Department of Environment for approval this week, CEO of UM Shore Regional Health Ken Kozel told the audience at a public meeting on June 24 at the Town Hall.They will include additions and changes requested by the Town. MDE usually takes about three weeks to respond.
Currently the embedded oil is kept from migrating toward the town water supplies by strategically placed pumping wells, but all parties seek a more efficient and safe resolution to the issue. Shore Health has been paying for the well-pump operations at a cost of $50,000 per year.
Also at the meeting were Melissa Hall, representing the consulting firm overseeing the remediation process for Shore Health and Maryland Department of the Environment representative Chris Ralston.
Previous presentations by Shore Health to the Town Council about the remediation process raised concerns about Shore Health’s transparency and willingness to share information with the town.To address this, Shore Health agreed to the Town’s request for a public meeting to share the current status of the MDE application for the remediation pilot program.
Kozel introduced the presentation by saying. “We’re really trying to honor the commitment we made to the Town…I live by rules of integrity, respect and trust and it’s important we honor those rules.”
The Shore Health CEO also addressed the list of procedural requests made by the Town to be included in the permit application to MDE. All of them were included, with the exception of one that had been nullified by the acceptance of another.
Questions after the presentation ranged from Shore Health’s liability insurance, which Kozel maintains is in force, to theoretical travel times of the asphalt-like oil once it is liquefied by the surfactant added to the wells. The pilot test will not include the two wells closest to the water source.
How much oil is still there? Estimates for the original spill range from 100,000 to 150,000 gallons with retrieval estimates—through Shore Health’s yearly well pumping—ranging from 85,000 to much less. This question might be more aptly answered by how successful the remediation process works.
“We don’t look at how much might be left. We look at what’s coming from the wells during the testing. The key in all of this is monitoring,” MDE’s Chris Ralston said.
Efficacy of remediation can be determined by the quality of the retrieved surfactant as the impacted soil is treated.
While Ivey-Sol is little known in Maryland as a soil remediation surfactant, Ralston says that similar compounds have been used successfully in the state. Ivey-sol is considered a non-toxic mixture of soap and alcohol used to loosen contaminants (petroleum products) and make them more hydraulically available for extraction.
If the pilot application is accepted by MDE, the Ivey-sol surfactant study will be run from July 28 through August 1, a three-day process. Results will be available in early September at which time Shore Health will schedule another meeting with the Town and make their recommendations.
David Foster, former Chester Riverkeeper, policy analyst for the EPA, frequent contributor to the Spy, and strong advocate of governmental transparency was “pleased that representatives of Shore Health and MDE took the time to speak candidly with us and to answer our questions. Think about it. After only 28 years, we finally got all major stakeholders in the same room.”
Foster added that one way to cultivate trust would be to create a central document file at the county library. Currently documents regarding this project are available on the Maryland Department of Environment website and will be linked to the Town website. Currently they may be found here.
The video is of Ken Kozel addressing the Town’s request for additional requirements to be added to the MDE application for the pilot program.
David Foster says
Editor,
I would also like to commend Mayor Cerino for arranging this meeting and especially for extending an invitation to Chris Ralston, Manager of Maryland Department of Environment’s Oil Control Program. Not only, in my opinion, was Mr. Ralston the best informed person in the room but his presence and professional demeanor helped all the other participants to be much more careful about their own communications.
The meeting was a good step forward for Chestertown.