Harford County lawmakers are demanding the state stop allowing sewage sludge to be spread at Susquehanna State Park so residents can use the area again.
The Department of Natural Resources leases about 80 acres near Quake Bottom Road to Texas-based Synagro Technologies Inc., which has a contract with the county to remove sludge from wastewater treatment plants. The county pays the company $150 per acre of sludge spread, according to the Maryland Department of the Environment.
Lawmakers and residents claim DNR is misusing state land and taxes because state law bars people from setting foot on the land for a year after sludge containing pathogens is spread.
In applying for the permit, Synagro said it planned to use the sludge as fertilizer for a part of the park where hay would grow, but residents say it appears nothing grows there but grass.
Synagro did not return repeated phone calls.
“Is this particular lease simply a way to use agriculture as a scapegoat for the real issue, which is the ?cheap dumping of sludge on public lands?? ” County Councilman James “Capt?n Jim” McMahan wrote in a letter to DNR.
Del. B .Daniel Riley, D-District 34A, said it?s unfair to deprive residents of use of the parkland.
He sent a letter to state officials demandingthe dumping be stopped and urged the state delegation and Harford County Council to do so as well.
“That?s a state park; I think that?s a place for us to enjoy ? you, I and all taxpayers,” Riley said.
But DNR defended the lease.
“The lease process in this instance was a normal process,” said Arnold Norden, chief central regional planner for DNR.
Synagro made the only bid to lease the land and paid a price comparable to other leases, Norden said.
