The U.S. Army said Wednesday it was hopeful in reaching an agreement on cleaning up contaminated sites at Fort Meade even as Maryland is threatening to sue the Army for compliance.
“[The agreement] lays out cleanup remedies of the remaining contamination … and the framework for the agreement is already established,” said Tad Davis, deputy assistant secretary of the Army.
“We have had a vigorous cleanup already.”
The Federal Facilities Agreement would strike a deal between the Army and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on methods to clear out contaminated soil and water at nearly 20 sites on the Odenton installation.
Soil and low-level aquifers are contaminated — in some places 25 times higher than the federal standard — by buried unexploded bombs and leaking chemicals.
But the Army and EPA have butted heads over the cleanup method since the EPA issued an administrative order this past year.
The Army rebutted the EPA’s ability to provide a timely and cost-effective cleanup, and lost appeals to the EPA’s judiciary branch.
So far, Army officials said the Army has cleaned 33 of 51 sites at a cost of $83 million, and will continue its efforts until an agreement is reached.
“There’s always going to be friction … but there are folks [on both sides] who want to achieve a positive outcome,” Davis said.
Despite the Army’s statement, Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler on Tuesday issued an intent to sue the Army if it does not comply with the EPA order.
Gansler’s notice gives the Army a 90-day warning before a suit can actually be filed. The lawsuit comes through a provision allowing citizens or state governments to sue a federal agency.
“We have a power that the EPA doesn’t have — the ability to sue an agency to bring it into compliance,” said Austin Schlick, Gansler’s chief of litigation.
Davis said the Army has been in “open dialogue” with Maryland officials, and that the lawsuit threat would not hinder the Army’s efforts for an agreement.
EPA officials did not return a request for comment by press time, but have told The Examiner over the past six months that they would not comment on the issue.
In 2007, EPA’s Fort Meade inspector, Robert Stroud, told The Examiner that the area’s drinking water was not compromised by the contamination, and the Army had not been lacking in its cleaning effort.
Whether Gansler’s lawsuit threat will cause the Army to abide by the EPA’s mandate, the state has made the right move in setting an example, officials said.
“It is the correct action to protect the citizenry from the path the Army has taken, [which is] an incorrect path,” said David Prosten, chairman of the Anne Arundel Sierra Club.
The issue also has raised concern among Maryland’s elected federal officials, who are calling on the Department of Defense to quell the dispute.
