Everyone who testified at a Maryland House of Delegates hearing Wednesday supported a bill that would require the state to alert residents of well-water contamination.
Smaller counties requested the legislation because “they couldn?t handle notifying residents and felt it was an unfunded mandate,” said the bill?s co-sponsor, Del. Maggie McIntosh, D-Baltimore City, who serves as chairwoman of the house Environmental Matters Committee.
The Maryland Department of the Environment, Maryland Association of Counties and Harford CountyHealth Department testified Wednesday in favor of the measure.
“The bill would allow [MDE] and local health departments to continue to provide efficient and expeditious notification to citizens regarding groundwater contamination with the most hazardous components of gasoline so that they can make important decisions regarding their health and safety,” MDE spokeswoman Julia Oberg said.
The bill, which has a state senate counterpart, includes language that would allow counties ? if they prefer ? to continue alerting residents of wells contaminated with gasoline additives, such as methyl tertiary butyl ether.
Carroll County Health Officer Larry Leitch said his department would continue notifying residents.
“I think it?s a better idea for locals to do it in that we have a better feel for that particular area,” Carroll water quality supervisor Brian Flynn said. “We wind up getting calls about it, so it?s just as well that we?d be the ones to send it out.”
Carroll Circuit Court Judge Michael Galloway is expected to rule any day on whether to dismiss a $2 million lawsuit a Finksburg man filed against the State Highway Administration and several businesses for allegedly spilling chemicals into his well when removing underground storage tanks.
There is no word on a ruling as of Wednesday, said Robert Taylor, a lawyer for Jeffrey Dix, who said the contamination gave Dix cancer and lowered his property value.
