A bill banning future dumping of coal fly ash was pushed back to Oct. 1 to address several concerns of current contamination and where thousands of tons of ash will go if the bill is passed.
The council voted, 6-1, Monday to tack on an amendment to make depositing fly ash in the county illegal for one year instead of an absolute ban proposed by County Executive John R. Leopold.
It was an 11th hour compromise on the bill, which split the council over whether a bill was needed and what it should cover.
“In 10 months, I?mputting a bill up if things aren?t better,” said Councilman Jamie Benoit, who represents the area where fly ash contaminated several wells.
Leopold said Tuesday the council?s action was “a good first step” towards banning a material containing cancer-causing agents.
The amendment came before midnight, which is the deadline to vote on issues. After the amendment passed, three councilmembers reiterated their previous arguments and pushed the meeting past 12 a.m.
It appeared the bill had the four votes needed for passage. Leopold and county health officer Frances Phillips pushed for the bill?s approval.
The bill would have put a countywide ban on fly ash dumping, but would not have addressed contamination in Gambrills, where heavy metals in the ash leached into the water table and sullied private wells. That issue was the principal concern of Council Chairman Ronald Dillon, Jr. and Councilmembers Edward Middlebrooks and Cathy Vitale.
“We?re going to be protecting everyone but those that are affected and those that will be affected at this site,” Vitale said.
The two-hour long testimony, which featured 27 people, and the hour-long discussion raised more questions than answers, including what amounted to a bombshell from Constellation Energy, the company dumping the fly ash in Gambrills.
Constellation Energy official Sager Williams said if the ban went into place, county laws would require the county to deposit the ash in its landfill. The county attorney is reviewing this claim.
Constellation Energy officials also said it costs $1 million a month to haul the ash to Virginia, as the company has stopped dumping ash while negotiating with the Maryland Department of the Environment over cleaning up the site.
The bill will be heard again Oct. 1, which is what MDE and Constellation Energy wanted so the details of the agreement between the two can be considered.
