#GivingTuesday2020.TurnerStation: In a “Perfect Storm” of Pollution Sources

(This is the second in a series of articles about a partnership between NeighborSpace and the Turner Station Conservation Teams to create a new park in Turner Station next year. The first may be found here).

In the course of public deliberations over the development of a liquefied natural gas import facility and gas pipeline at Sparrows Point in 2006, a group known as the African American Environmentalist Association (AAEA) advocated on behalf of Turner Station residents.  In its comments to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, AAEA noted that:  “The community exists in a perfect storm of pollution sources ... surrounded by a steel production plant, landfill, electric utility plant … soil and groundwater chromium contamination, Interstate Highway 695 yards away and nearby Patapsco River dredge spoil.” (AAEA FERC Statement).

The steel plant was the site of decades of lax enforcement of environmental regulations. In a 2017 letter to the Maryland Public Service Commission, the Environmental Integrity Project noted that “Turner Station’s experience with environmental pollution is unique because of its close proximity … to Sparrows Point. For decades, inadequate environmental oversight at the Bethlehem Steel Mill meant that pollution from the mill was visibly deposited on Turner Station residents’ cars, roofs, and clothes hung out to dry.” L. Kelly. Letter to Md. Public Service Commission (April 4, 2017) (Available at: https://www.environmentalintegrity.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/OSWComments.pdf). The letter also points out that Turner Station is located in an area that the EPA has determined does not meet air quality standards for sulfur dioxide owing to its proximity to area coal plants.

The landfill referred to in the AAEA’s statement is Grey’s landfill, shown in the map above, a solid waste facility owned and operated by Bethlehem Steel and its successors just across Bear Creek, about a half mile from Turner Station. An investigation by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation found that industrial waste deposited in the unlined landfill, including asbestos, benzene, chromium, lead, naphthalene, and zinc, had contaminated Bear Creek and the Patapsco River, endangering human health and the environment. The results help to explain why Fleming Beach, which opened at Sollers Point in 1964, was closed permanently, just following its debut, after beach patrons developed ear infections, skin lesions, eye infections and respiratory problems.

The electric utility plant referred to in the AAEA’s comments is Riverside Power Plant, shown in the map above, which includes an adjacent electrical substation. It is owned by Excelon and is located on Sollers Point on the Patapsco River, just west of Turner Station. The site was purchased by Baltimore Gas and Electric in 1922 for a manufactured gas plant that was never built. It came on line as an electric generating station in 1944 and today is only operated when there is peak demand for electricity, such as on hot summer days. Residents of Turner Station have long gardened under power lines emanating from the substation, as shown in the photo below.

The soil and groundwater chromium contamination mentioned in the AAEA’s comments is a reference to the historic use of wastes from a chromium ore processing plant in the Inner Harbor as fill dirt for the Dundalk Marine Terminal, shown in the map above, just to the west of Turner Station. A 2012 Sun article noted that storm drains beneath the shipping terminal “have run yellow at times with chromium-tainted water.” T.B. Wheeler. “Dundalk port cleanup plan set.” (The Baltimore Sun, Sept. 23, 2012). The article goes on to note that “[t]he ore wastes, dumped over a quarter of the 580-acre terminal site, were laced with hexavalent chromium, a known human carcinogen.” The blacktop covering much of the filled area developed cracks, allowing the release of contaminants and exposure of nearby residents. Honeywell, the current owner of the chromium plant site, and the Md. Port Administration agreed on plans to cap the site to contain the contamination in 2012.

With this as background, it is not surprising that a group of health professionals from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health claimed, in a 2013 Sun op-ed that “Turner Station and surrounding areas are among the Baltimore-area communities with the worst health statistics from environmental and industrial contaminant exposures.” M. Trush, et. al., “Turner Station residents threatened by chromium pollution.” (The Baltimore Sun, Oct. 28, 2013). Worse than the statistics themselves is the length of time it has taken for government to force the polluters to obey the law and clean up their acts. That hexavalent chromium and arsenic are like kryptonite to people and the environment is not a new revelation – and yet it has taken decades to motivate corrective action.

All of this argues for us all do whatever we can to mitigate the impacts of a history of environmental injustice in Turner Station. That is why we’re asking for your support of our efforts to create a new park there this #GivingTuesday. Click here to learn more and make a contribution or mail your check payable to NeighborSpace of Baltimore County to P.O. Box 6715, Towson, MD 21285.