Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Army for not complying with a federal order to clean up Fort Meade.
“There is an imminent and substantial danger of water contamination. É The Army has agreed verbally to something they need to do and say they will do, but haven’t done a thing to prove otherwise,” said Gansler, who filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Baltimore on Tuesday.
The suit is demanding the Army give the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency control over the cleanup of Fort Meade, where buried chemicals and munitions have contaminated the water table.
The Army told The Examiner earlier this month that it would comply with the EPA’s mandate after the U.S. Justice Department said the Army could no longer fight against the order.
The Army had protested the order due to possible high costs and delays.
Army officials said the military has spent $83 million to clean 33 of 51 contaminated sites at the Anne Arundel County installation. The EPA has told The Examiner that the Army’s effort was “not lacking.”
Gansler and the Maryland Department of the Environment want concrete timetables for the cleanup. Fort Meade has been on the EPA’s National Priorities List, or Superfund, since 1993.
“While we fully anticipate the Department of Defense will be in compliance in the near future, what we need is long-term legally binding commitment from the Army to clean up Fort Meade as soon as possible,” MDE Secretary Shari Wilson said in a written statement.
The Army sent letters to Maryland officials notifying them of its intent to comply with the order, as well as a preliminary timeline on Dec. 19, said Tad Davis, deputy assistant secretary of the Army.
“I think we’ve made a good effort to work with the EPA É and done our best job to address Maryland of our actions,” Davis said Tuesday.
“It’s disappointing to see them take this action.”
Davis said $24 million has been set aside to clean up the remaining sites.
Maryland can sue the Army under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and filed a notice of intent to sue in August.
Gansler said the suit would be dropped if the Army officially signs onto the EPA order and sets up timetables for cleanup.
The most serious area of concern at the fort is a plume of contaminated underground water at the installation’s southern boundary, where the Army once buried 250 drums containing hazardous liquids such as gasoline.
Already a mile long, the plume is spreading into the nearby Patuxent Wildlife Refuge, though it poses no immediate risk to humans, according to fort officials.
