Cambridge, Md. (December 10, 2009) – In the Monday, December 7, 2009 edition of the Baltimore Sun, the article “Environmental groups to ask U.S. to crack down on state enforcements” included a statement that the UMCES Horn Point Laboratory had reported “more than 80 violations at its wastewater treatment plant from 2004 to May of this year.”
As verified by records of the Maryland Department of the Environment, it is clear that statement is incorrect in every way. The Horn Point Laboratory has not operated a wastewater treatment plant since 1998 when its wastewater effluent was connected to the advanced treatment facility operated by the city of Cambridge. The Laboratory has a permit to return seawater flowing through its laboratories and culture facilities back to the Choptank River and there were no instances reported during this period in which the monitored data were outside the bounds of the permit conditions. Rather, we were informed by MDE that entries in an EPA database incorrectly indicated noncompliance for months for which monitoring result were not available even though the permit conditions require only quarterly, not monthly, reporting. Apparently, the MDE has had great difficulty in getting EPA to correcting these and other errors and inconsistencies in the database.
With this information, UMCES contacted the Sun, which reported this reporting error in the December 10 article “Water pollution abuses 'a reporting error'”. UMCES appreciates the Sun correcting the inaccurate information published about the Horn Point Laboratory.
Below is the letter to the editor submitted to the Sun on December 9, which led to the article correcting the inaccuracies.
To the Editor: As an institution that has long made important contributions to Chesapeake Bay restoration, imagine our surprise to read in the Sun article (December 8) on the petition to withdraw Maryland’s water discharge permitting authority that: “the University of Maryland's Horn Point environmental laboratory near Cambridge reported more than 80 violations at its wastewater treatment plant from 2004 to May of this year.” This was particularly so given the fact that the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Horn Point Laboratory ceased operation of its own wastewater plant in 1998, when it hooked into the advanced treatment plant in Cambridge. We are permitted for discharge to the Choptank River of water pumped from the river itself to sustain experimental animals and for our shellfish and finfish hatcheries—the central cog in Bay oyster restoration. Most of this water is filtered and returned to the river clearer than withdrawn. The so-called “violations” are, in fact, errors in the EPA database, which is programmed to look for monthly data, when our permit calls for quarterly reporting. According to the Maryland Department of the Environment, the computer program erroneously records the lack of a monthly record as a noncompliance. On only one occasion back in 2001, we dutifully reported that the pH in our discharge narrowly exceeded the permitted high of 8.5, but such mildly alkaline levels are commonly and naturally reached in the Choptank River and pose no risk to Bay life. The New York Times first posted the EPA database online in September and has since also posted MDE’s explanation of the numerous problems with the database. It is unfortunate that the Waterkeeper Alliance, its attorneys, and the Sun reporter, all of whom know us well, failed to check the facts in our case. Donald F. Boesch President, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science |
The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science is the University System of Maryland’s environmental research institution. UMCES researchers are helping improve our scientific understanding of Maryland, the region and the world through its three laboratories –Chesapeake Biological Laboratory in Solomons, Appalachian Laboratory in Frostburg, and Horn Point Laboratory in Cambridge – and the Maryland Sea Grant College.