THE GAZETTE
Wednesday, September 4, 2013 p
State attempts to settle suit with Dickerson coal plant Maryland Department of the Environment cites company for allegedly polluting waterways n
BY
KATE S. ALEXANDER STAFF WRITER
Maryland hopes to settle with the operator of a coal power plant in Dickerson that it sued for polluting local waterways. The Maryland Department of the Environment sued Delaware-based GenOn MidAtlantic and GenOn Chalk Point in U.S. District Court in June, claiming the Dickerson Electric Generating Station and Chalk Point Electric Generating Station in Prince George’s County pumped higher-than-allowed levels of chemicals into local bodies of water. MDE Spokesman Jay Apperson said the parties in the case have asked the court to put the case on hold for 120 days as they attempt to settle. As of Tuesday the stay had not been granted. The state is seeking monetary penalties and for the court to require GenOn to stop what is says in its June 11 complaint are “ongoing violations of state and federal water pollution laws.” It is asking the court charge GenOn a civil penalty of up to $37,500 per violation per day for violations of the federal Clean Water Act beginning Jan. 13, 2009, and $32,500 for violations that occurred earlier. It also is asking the court charge a $10,000-per-violation-per-day penalty for violations under the state law.
MDE claims the company violated the laws by releasing too much nitrogen and phosphorus into local bodies of water. Under the federal Clean Water Act, point source facilities, like the two plants, operate with permits that cap how much pollution it can discharge. Dickerson is capped at 511 pounds of nitrogen pollution per year, Chalk Point at 329 pounds, according to the complaint. Yet in the past four years, both plants have pumped more nitrogen than permitted into local waterways, exceeding the caps by thousands of pounds of pollution, the complaint said. In 2011, the Dickerson plant also pumped too much phosphorus into the water, according to the complaint. GenOn spokesman David Gaier contrasted the plants’ pollution with municipal wastewater plants that are permitted to release much more nitrogen — 4.4 million pounds per year. Gaier said GenOn is limited each year roughly to what a municipal wastewater plant can discharge in an hour. “The fact is that we’ve discharged considerably less Nitrogen into the water over time — and our current negotiations with the state deal with the Enhanced Nitrogen Removal (ENR) technologies we’re able to use at a facility like ours, and what the correct baseline numbers are,” Gaier wrote. “Both the NRG Chalk Point and Dickerson plants are considered ‘minor’ sources of Nitrogen by the State of Maryland, and our Morgantown plant’s systems actually discharge less nitrogen than they take in.”
The pollutants largely responsible for problems with the Chesapeake Bay are nitrogen and phosphorus, and sediment, according to MDE. Apperson said those nutrients promote algae blooms that die off and take with them oxygen needed by the bay’s aquatic life, creating dead zones. “Nutrient pollution is at heart of efforts to restore the bay and local waterways,” Apperson said. Apperson said environmental interest groups who intended to sue the company for the same pollution also have joined the case. In January, Food & Water Watch, Potomac Riverkeeper and Patuxent Riverkeeper — represented by Public Justice and the Columbia University School of Law Environmental Law Clinic — filed an intent to sue GenOn’s parent company NRG Energy Inc. for federal Clean Water Act violations at the Dickerson and Chalk Point plants as well as a plant in Charles County, according to a joint news release. The state’s June case comes on the heels of a May settlement with GenOn in a case against its disposal of “coal combustion byproducts” at plants in Montgomery and Charles counties. Unlined pits for disposing of coal waste allowed toxic pollutants to leach into groundwater and streams from the sites, according MDE. The settlement requires GenOn to pay fines and abate contamination of ground and surface water.
Downtown fixtures
DAN GROSS/THE GAZETTE
New mosaic murals made from discontinued hardware adorn the exterior of Union Hardware in downtown Bethesda. This one, called “Pretty Bird” in honor of the Baltimore oriole, is one of three unveiled Friday.
kalexander@gazette.net
Bounty hunters plead guilty to bringing weapon to school Two men chased a suspect onto school grounds in Gaithersburg n
BY KRISTA BRICK STAFF WRITER
Two bounty hunters arrested after being seen with a pellet gun and Taser in Quince Orchard High School’s parking lot in March pleaded guilty. Jonathan Vargas-Fuentes, 28, of Hyattsville pleaded guilty Thursday to second-degree assault and bringing a dangerous weapon onto school property. His co-defendant, Clemente Balsera, 29, of Gaithersburg, pleaded guilty to the same charges on Aug. 22. Both received a three-year suspended sentence for each of the two counts, with 18 months of supervised probation. Balsera served 59 days in jail and VargasFuente served two days.
“While recovery agents, bounty hunters and bail bondsmen are a part of the criminal justice system, there are common-sense boundaries and procedures they must follow. Apprehending a suspect in a dangerous manner on school property or around children is not the way to go about tracking down fugitive,” said Montgomery County State’s Attorney spokesman Ramon Korionoff. Themenwerehiredasbounty hunters by bail bondsman Nick Pantazes of Upper Marlboro and on March 15 were said to be chasing a suspect in a pickup truck who had failed to appear in court on a marijuana charge, according to Korionoff. Attempts to get a comment from Pantazes’ company were unsuccessful. According to charging documents, the bounty hunters, in a gold Taurus, started to chase Gabriel Tovar, who was driving a pickup truck, and his passenger, Caitlin Wiggington, near Black
Rock Road in Germantown. The men followed them into the Quince Orchard High School bus loop in the middle of buses and exiting students during dismissal time and tried to arrest him there, according to the charging documents. That’s where witnesses say they saw one of the bounty hunters get out of the car, stand behind the open passenger door and aim what looked like a handgun at the driver of the pickup truck. The suspect drove off and the bounty hunters followed, according to the court documents. Montgomery County police got the call about the incident about 2:11 p.m. and the high school was put in lockdown. Nearby Lakelands Park Middle School was on a shelter-in-place status and Rachel Carson Elementary School delayed its bus service. Shortly thereafter, the men were arrested on Quince Orchard Road at Route 28.
Survey: County short on nightlife options Task force works to boost evening scene n
BY AGNES BLUM STAFF WRITER
Montgomery County’s nightlife options range from OK to not very good, according to a majority of people who responded to a survey County Council member Hans Riemer compiled this summer. The poll is unscientific, the respondents are self-selected and there was no attempt to account for demographic representation, Riemer said. Still, with 1,831 respondents, the survey did provide some insight into the issue of the county’s nightlife. “There’s a lot of enthusiasm for making changes to promote nightlife in Montgomery County,” Riemer said. “We found out, generally speaking, people spend a lot of time going out and they want better options.” Riemer is an ex-officio member of the Nighttime Economy Task Force, created earlier this year by County Executive
Isiah Leggett (D) in an effort to encourage increased nighttime business and entertainment. The 19-member group, which meets the third Monday of every month, is chaired by Heather Dlhopolsky, a lawyer and a board member of the Greater Bethesda-Chevy Chase Chamber of Commerce. To see a full list of the task force members, visit the website www. montgomerycountymd.gov/ nighttimeeconomy/who.html. The task force has had four of its six monthly meetings so far and is expected to complete its recommendations by the end of the year. According to the Nighttime Economy Task Force website, the county hopes to establish a lively environment that appeals to all sorts of people — from baby boomers to families to single professionals. Just how to do that has yet to be decided. “One thing that struck me the most was the results seem very supportive of improving the nighttime economy. I was actually very heartened by that,” Dlhopolsky said. Riemer had presented the results of the sur-
vey to the task force at the August meeting. Dlhopolsky said the results confirmed the bad news that she and other task force members had suspected. “Our young people are going out at night to D.C. and not staying here,” she said. The task force is in the process of putting together draft recommendations, such as tweaking liquor licensing laws that regulate who gets to serve alcohol in the county, Dlhopolsky said. The way it stands now, every venue, with few exceptions, must make 50 percent of its money from food, Riemer said. That’s an obstacle to opening other types of places besides restaurants — such as music clubs that serve alcohol or craft brew pubs that don’t want to sell food. “It’s debilitating for some entrepreneurs,” Riemer said. To see the results of the survey, visit http://www.councilmemberriemer.org/2013/08/ moco-night-life-survey-results. html. ablum@gazette.net
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