You Gotta Know When to Sue 'Em...

Late last week, the Capital reported that the South River Federation had reached a settlement with the developers of Annapolis Towne Centre at Parole over their discharge of sediment-laden water into the River during construction. The lawsuit claimed that the development project had violated the Clean Water Act by allowing the pollution of Church Creek as a result of stormwater runoff.

Greenberg Gibbons Commercial Corp., the group developing the site, denied the allegations, but agreed to pay $120,000 to repair damage to the creek, monitor the site for future compliance, and legal fees.

South River Federation Releases Scorecard

Like the Magothy, Severn, and Patuxent, the South River had a rough 2007. The South River Federation's latest report gives the River a 34 out of 100.

The full report can be found here.

South River Gets Graded

The South River Federation has released its first assessment of the River. The results are not encouraging.

Post coverage
Capital coverage

Parole Site Pollutes Church Creek...Again

Today's Capital reports that the the Parole Towne Center is once again the source of serious sediment loading into Church Creek, a tributary of the South River.

While pumping out a sediment control pond, a contractor on the site failed to use the proper filtration devices to prevent muddy water from leaving the project area. While the "de-watering" operation was halted as soon as the South Riverkeeper gave County inspectors notification that the violation was occuring, the contractor, Reliable, was given a $500 fine, a slap on the wrist.

Both Greenberg-Gibbons, the developer, and Reliable, the contractor claim not to be responsible. Greenberg-Gibbons' Senior Vice President Kim Potember claimed, "We did not see what the county saw. We did not see the overflow ... We don't agree with the reason the fine was levied."

Perhaps they didn't see it because they don't have their own environmental inspector on site monitoring such activities.

Reliable President, Jay Baldwin was in similar disbelief: "We are not sure the county has all the facts. We treated the pond that was being drained. Our guys were watching the operation and the water was not going over the bio-filter. No water was going into that outfall."

This has only happened 3 or 5 times before. Surely it's a case of mistaken identity.

The developers are touting this leaky site as "state-of-the-art," the County is promising to crack down on environmental offenders (and levying piddling fines), and the Riverkeepers are doing the job of County inspectors. There are many things wrong with this picture. John Leopold is currently the only person in the County with the capacity to correct all three.

Catfish as Canary, II

Well, the results are in, and they aren't good. Of the 30 brown bullhead catfish pulled from the South River for study earlier in the year, 13 had skin cancer, 3 had liver cancer, and 3 had both. As was covered here in March, the exact cause of the tumors isn't known, but one strong possibility is polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), carcinogens that are often the product of unburned petroleum fuel.

The Fish and Wildlife Service biologist who performed the research on the catfish, Dr. Fred Pinkney, said the 50 percent skin cancer rate was the highest he had found in the Chesapeake Bay watershed in the last 10 years. The liver tumor rate was second only to the Anacostia River, which has served essentially as a public sewer for much of the past 50 years (but is now attempting a renaissance of sorts). According to Dr. Pinkney, "I use this as an indicator of habitat quality, and it tells me the habitat quality is not good," in case there was any doubt.

Next steps? The South River Federation and Dr. Pinkney are seeking additional funding so that they can study catfish and sediment samples from some of the surrounding estuaries, such as the Severn River and Rhode River.

Catfish as Canary

Today's Capital reports that 30 catfish recently caught in the South River during a yellow perch study were found to have lumps and lesions around their mouths. The tumors found on the brown bullhead catfish, which feeds from the soils at the bottom of the river, are apparently similar to those found on fish pulled from the heavily polluted Anacostia River.

The leading suspects at this point are a class of toxins called polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). According to the EPA public health statement on PAHs, "Several of the PAHs, including benz[a]anthracene, benzo[a]pyrene, benzo[b]fluoranthene, benzo[j]fluoranthene, benzo[k]fluoranthene, chrysene, dibenz[a,h]anthracene, and indeno [1,2,3-c,d]pyrene, have caused tumors in laboratory animals when they breathed these substances in the air, when they ate them, or when they had long periods of skin contact with them. Studies of people show that individuals exposed by breathing or skin contact for long periods to mixtures that contain PAHs and other compounds can also develop cancer."

The fish are currently being studied to discern the cause(s) of the tumors. But, let's assume for the time that the cause is PAHs. Where did they come from? Again, the EPA states, "PAHs enter the environment mostly as releases to air from volcanoes, forest fires, residential wood burning, and exhaust from automobiles and trucks. They can also enter surface water through discharges from industrial plants and waste water treatment plants, and they can be released to soils at hazardous waste sites if they escape from storage containers."

As we're pretty short on volcanoes, forest fires, and generally massive amounts of wood burning in the area, that leaves vehicle exhaust, discharges from wastewater plants, and hazardous waste sites. As I recall, Route 50 crosses the upper reaches of the South River, Annapolis has a wastewater treatment facility (and old landfill) in the headwaters of the River, and there's a toxic dump abutting streams that feed into the River. Looks like we've hit the trifecta, folks. We're poisoning ourselves, and sometimes it takes a catfish with cancer to remind us.