The Gazette
C COMMUNITY OMMUNITY NE N NEWS EWS www.gazette.net
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Wednesday, August 7, 2013
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Page A-4
New standards for landlords, tenants OK’d in Poolesville Disputes will fall under county code rather than having to go to court
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BY
RYAN MARSHALL STAFF WRITER
2011 FILE PHOTO
The Maryland Department of the Environment has sued a subsidiary of NRG Energy, claiming the company’s coal-fired power plant in Dickerson released wastewater into the Potomac River that contained illegal amounts of nitrogen.
State sues NRG Energy, alleging water pollution at plants Dickerson plant discharged nitrogren into Potomac, suit claims n
BY MAX EHRENFREUND THE WASHINGTON POST
The Maryland Department of the Environment has brought another water pollution lawsuit against a subsidiary of NRG Energy, just weeks after the company agreed to pay millions of dollars in penalties and mitigation costs to settle a suit related to other facilities. The new suit, filed in June, concerns coal-fired generators at two plants, in Dickerson and at Chalk Point in Aquasco in Prince George’s County. The state contends that wastewater released into the Potomac and Patuxent rivers, respectively, contained illegal amounts of nitrogen and, in one instance, phosphorus. The parties are trying to negotiate a settlement in the case, the latest in a series of legal disputes involving facilities that were owned by GenOn Energy before NRG bought the company in December. The lawsuit names GenOn entities as defendants. Publicly traded NRG of Princeton, N.J., reported $8.4
billion in revenue in 2012, and the company owns dozens of power plants across the country. David Hill, executive vice president and general counsel at NRG, declined to comment on the continuing litigation. According to Maryland’s complaint, sulfur dioxide scrubbers and wastewater treatment systems were added at the two plants in 2009 and 2010 to comply with the Maryland Healthy Air Act, enacted in 2006. The treatment systems included bacteria to remove pollutants from wastewater, but the organisms died soon after installation, the state contends. Citing monitoring data submitted by GenOn, the state contends that the Chalk Point plant discharged as much as 20 times its annual allotment of nitrogen into the Patuxent in some years. Nitrogen, like phosphorus, is a common component of fertilizer. Released into water, it can exacerbate algal blooms, which in turn create the oxygen-depleted dead zones that have plagued the Chesapeake Bay. “It’s what’s killing the bay,” said Scott Edwards, a lawyer at Food and Water Watch. The advocacy group was one of several organizations that threatened to sue NRG this year, prodding
state officials to take action. Another of those organizations was Patuxent Riverkeeper, which is led by Fred Tutman. He called the alleged violations “part of a persistent pattern of misbehavior.” NRG’s Hill said there is not necessarily any connection between legal disputes involving facilities formerly controlled by GenOn, and he noted that facilities are located in different states with varying approaches to enforcement. Hill also said GenOn and NRG had similar protocols for preventing pollution. “We believe that GenOn had acted reasonably and responsibly before the merger,” he said. Maryland’s previous suit, settled in early May, dealt with the landfills in Prince George’s, Montgomery and Charles counties that were used to dispose of fly ash from coal-fired generators, including the Dickerson and Chalk Point plants. Coal ash can contain an array of heavy metals and other toxins, including arsenic and selenium. As part of a settlement in that suit, NRG agreed to determine whether pollution from the ash dumps has contaminated drinking water in nearby wells. In addition to paying a $1.9
million penalty, the settlement requires NRG to take action to control pollution at the sites. Among other measures, the company has agreed to cap the ash pits that are no longer in use with an impermeable layer, which will prevent rainwater from leaching pollutants into groundwater. NRG has set aside $47 million to install the caps, but it cannot predict the total cost of implementing the settlement, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. NRG maintains that GenOn’s operations were legal, and the company did not admit wrongdoing in the settlement. GenOn and Maryland settled another case in December. The state contended that the company, acting without the proper permits, filled wetlands at the Prince George’s landfill in Brandywine. The company agreed to a $300,000 fine. In an incident not related to the settlement, ash overflowed at the Brandywine site after Tropical Storm Irene in 2011, flooding 18 acres of private property. In May, NRG also settled a lawsuit concerning air pollution from a coal-fired plant formerly owned by GenOn in Mount Bethel, Pa.
Police: Shooting victim recovering from surgery Police say victim and shooter know each other n
BY ST. JOHN BARNED-SMITH AND RYAN MARSHALL STAFF WRITERS
Police said a man who was shot at about 1:30 a.m. Monday at a Germantown residence probably was the victim of a home invasion by several people. Police arrived at the ranchstyle house, in the 17400 block of Onyx Drive, after a report of a shooting and burglary, said Montgomery County Police Capt. Jim Daly. They discovered a 22-year-
old man who had been shot several times in the torso, Daly said. As of mid-afternoon on Monday, police had not released the victim’s identity. Police think the victim and shooter knew each other. “We don’t believe this was some sort of random crime,” he said. According to Daly, several people forced their way into the house through the back door of the residence. The shooting occurred in the basement. Rescue personnel took the man to a local hospital, where he was recovering from surgery, Daly said. Around noon Monday, police crime scene tape still hung across Black Rock Road in front
of the Asbury United Methodist Church, across the street from where police shuttled in and out of the house. A child’s pink toy jeep sat in front of the house, near where officers stopped to talk on the front porch, and a swing set was visible in the backyard. Neighbor Kenneth Greene said police activity was very unusual in the quiet neighborhood off Md. 118. Greene said he was in bed around 2:30 a.m. when he heard a helicopter flying low overhead and saw its lights searching the neighborhood. The house’s residents had moved in less than two months ago, he said.
The residents never caused a disturbance in the neighborhood, although cars sometimes came to and from the home, he said. Police were not sure what, if any, property was taken from the home, Daly said. Police searched the surrounding area with K-9 teams and a helicopter from the U.S. Park Police, but did not find anyone. Several other adults were in the house at time of shooting, Daly said. Those people have been identified and interviewed, but no one was charged or was in custody, he said. sjbsmith@gazette.net rmarshall@gazette.net
For the first time, landlords and tenants in Poolesville will be able to resolve their differences using the Montgomery County code rather than going to court. The town’s five-member Board of Commissioners unanimously passed an ordinance Monday night that adopted the county’s regulations for mitigating landlord-tenant disputes. Because Poolesville’s code had no provisions for dealing with such disputes, landlords or tenants in the town previously had to go to court to resolve their issues. Complaints can be filed with the county’s Office of Landlord-Tenant Affairs, and assigned to an investigator from the office who looks into complaints and tries to mediate an agreement. If no agreement can be reached, the complaint is referred to a 15-member commission that can issue binding orders that could range from a landlord receiving up to $2,500 in damages or a tenant receiving up to three times their se-
curity deposit. The commissioners had a public hearing on the ordinance at their July 15 meeting, at which no residents spoke, and Town Manager Wade Yost said Monday that no comments were received during the public comment period leading up to that night’s meeting. The lack of comments makes one wonder whether the legislation is really needed, but the town should have a plan in place to deal with issues that come up, Commissioners’ President Jim Brown said. Commissioner Jerome Klobukowski expressed concern about the time it will take for the county to resolve issues, and asked if the town could get a report from the county on how many cases they get from Poolesville and how long it takes to resolve them. Brown said the county has indicated it would be willing to provide numbers to the town. Commissioner Valaree Dickerson said the town shouldn’t get too involved, otherwise there’s no point in letting the county handle the issue. But she said the town should adopt the ordinance because right now neither landlords nor tenants have an advocate. rmarshall@gazette.net
Groundbreaking for new Muslim worship site to be on Wednesday Facility will offer after-school program, other services n
BY
RYAN MARSHALL STAFF WRITER
Muslims in northern Montgomery County will soon have a new place to worship, with a groundbreaking scheduled for Wednesday in Germantown. The Germantown/Boyds area has more than 600 Muslim families, said Hwaida Hassanein, a spokeswoman for the Islamic Society of Germantown, and the new place of worship will be the only facility of its kind within a 10mile radius. The building will consist of nearly 10,000 square feet on three levels, and contain a library, classrooms and a reception area with a commercial kitchen, Hassanein said. It is also expected to provide after-school programs, educational and vocational training and community outreach, among other services. The masjid, or Muslim house of worship, is expected to be completed by the end of 2014 and cost about $1.6 million. Masjid is the preferred term to “mosque,” which sometimes has some negative connotations attached to it, Hassanein said. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, Maryland has had three incidents directed against mosques in recent years. In 2006, several shots were
fired into an Islamic center in Salisbury, although no one was injured. In 2008, about 70 paintballs were fired at the Islamic Center of Maryland in Gaithersburg early one morning. And in 2009, a Muslim group based in Silver Spring abandoned plans to build a facility in Walkersville after the proposal drew opposition from some local residents and public officials in the Frederick County town. While the process of getting approvals to build the Germantown masjid has taken about 10 years, Hassanein said her group hasn’t encountered that type of reaction. “We’ve been very widely accepted by people in the community,” she said. County Councilman Craig Rice (D-Dist. 2) of Germantown said he expected to attend the groundbreaking and said the masjid’s arrival reflects the diversity of Montgomery and the upcounty region. The community should make efforts to support any religious institution, he said. Sen. Nancy King (D-Dist. 39) of Montgomery Village said the large and growing Muslim population around Germantown made the masjid’s location a perfect fit. King said she hasn’t heard any concerns from constituents about the facility, likely because the area is already so diverse. “I don’t think people will even bat one eyelash at it,” she said. rmarshall@gazette.net