Opponents to a proposed liquefied natural gas plant are worried the state might cave to pressure to build a facility to house toxic dredge material at the same site they are trying to protect from environmental damage.
The Sparrows Point shipyard ? where Virginia-based AES Corp. is proposing the $400 million facility ? has been recommended as a future site to house sediment dredged from Baltimore?s contaminated harbor, said Francis Taylor, chair of the citizens? advisory committee for the state?s Dredged Material Management Program. With space rapidly filling at other state-approved containment sites, he said the material has to go somewhere.
“If you think that?s not a project on the table, then you?re wrong,” Taylor told members of a task force commissioned by the state to study the proposal, at a Friday meeting. “Negotiations are going on right now.”
A dredge storage facility at Sparrows Point would require lawmakers to reverse a ban on such facilities within five miles of Hart-Miller Island ? where contaminated dredged material is stored ? a region that includes the shipyard.
But challengers of the LNG plant, who cite safety and environmental risks, said they consider the possibility a serious threat.
AES has proposed a $10 million facility to clean the dredged material, making it available for other “innovative” uses like concrete filler.
That?s an attractive offer for the state?s port administration, said Sharon Beazley, co-chair of the state task force and coordinator of the Dundalk-based LNG Opposition Team. She said the incentive could pressure lawmakers to revoke the law and allow dredge containment at the shipyard for the sake of the port.
“All of a sudden, it?s like AES is the port?s Messiah,” Beazley said.
Sen. Norman Stone, D-District 6, said a dredge facility at the shipyard appeared on an agenda for the state?s Board of Public Works several months ago, but he successfully persuaded members to take it off. He said he?s fought talk to reverse the ban before, and is prepared to do it again.
“They can do anything if they get the votes but I?ll do what I can,” Stone said.
Taylor said if the law is removed and a facility is built, he would lobby for incentives for the community, such as funds for shoreline stabilization or local projects like a heritage trail.
Friday?s meeting was the task force?s last before members begin crafting a final report due to the state by Dec. 31.
