Environmentalists, Lawmakers React To Wastewater Plant Report
EPA Stats Show Plant Exceeded Sewage Flow Capacity By 588 Percent
POSTED: 6:25 pm EDT April 8,
2004
UPDATED: 7:26 pm EDT April 8,
2004
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Controversy grows surrounding a wastewater treatment plant with a pattern of sewage spills and unreported dumping.Robert Griffith was the No. 2 man at Centreville's wastewater treatment plant, before he was fired two days ago. He wrote a letter to the Centerville town council laying out his two main concerns, WBAL-TV 11 News reporter John Sherman reported Wednesday night.
In the letter, Griffith claims that the plant can't handle the amount of sewage coming in so it routinely puts out murky gray hazardous sewage right into a creek feeding the Chesapeake Bay. Griffith's second charge -- that the pumps shut down altogether because they're critically overloaded and the huge spills of raw sewage aren't ever reported to the state.
After seeing the 11 News exclusive report, officials at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation completed their own research and spoke with Sherman Thursday afternoon."We're very disturbed by this story. It's very disturbing that we have violations of permits going on, that we have this much sewage coming out untreated for this length of time," foundation spokeswoman Kim Coble said.Coble told 11 News Thursday that federal Environmental Protection Agency information shows a problem."I've never heard of one [sewage spill] that is this extreme. One of the things that we did was check an EPA database that has data that's reported by the sewage treatment plant to the EPA. Between the months of January and March of 2003, it was reported by the sewage treatment plant that they exceed flow capacity by 588 percent," she said.Lawmakers also reacted to the report Wednesday, calling for reviews."You have to make sure that your infrastructure will take care of the growth," Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-District 2, said.Terry Adams, who is the town manager, manages the plant, but refused to speak with 11 News Wednesday night.Stay with TheWBALChannel.com and WBAL-TV 11 News for the latest news updates.
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EPA Stats Show Plant Exceeded Sewage Flow Capacity By 588 Percent
