A Baltimore County Circuit Court judge refused to dismiss a claim filed by county activists asking the court to halt dredging off the Sparrows Point shipyard near the Key Bridge.
Judge Susan Souder?s decision Friday to move forward a Dundalk community association?s complaints that the Sparrows Point operators are disturbing contaminated material on the harbor floor comes too late to stop the first round of dredging but could help halt a much larger second phase, activists said.
Sparrows Point operators had until Jan. 31 to dredge 600,000 cubic yards of sediment before a state permit to deposit the material at nearby Hart Miller Island expired. Members of the Greater Dundalk Alliance who filed the request said they suspect most of that is already completed ? but that won?t stop them from pursuing the case.
“It was worth every effort because it will set a precedent for the next go-round,” activist Sharon Beazley said.
Attorneys for the shipyard?s owner, Vincent Barletta, filed a motion to dismiss the community?s claim, arguing the court did not have jurisdiction.
Barletta was issued a 10-year permit in May 2005 for the first round of dredging and subsequent phases for about 2.6 million cubic yards of material at an undetermined disposal site.
Repeated messages and e-mails to Heather Sites, project and environmental engineer for the Sparrows Point Shipyard company, have not been returned. The community?s case has been marred by delays.
A judge temporarily halted the dredging Dec. 19, but allowed it to resume the next day when the residents could not post a $750,000 bond as collateral.
The motion for dismissal delayed hearings until Jan. 10, and a ruling was issued Friday.
A new hearing date for the original request to halt the dredging has not yet been scheduled, said community attorney Alan Silverberg.
“We want to focus on a larger phase two, which is looming,” Silverberg said. “We are going to strongly oppose any further dredging even if we were not successful in stopping phase one.”
