Wal-Mart building permit worries environmentalists

Wal-Mart?s application for a building permit for a piece of property on Route 3 adjacent to the Crofton Country Club has activists worried about the possibility of the store?s fertilizer contaminating thecounty creeks.

Fred Tutman, the Patuxent river keeper, said Wal-Mart is known for keeping surplus mulch and fertilizer near its parking lot. He said chemicals from the mulch and fertilizer will travel to the county?s creeks by storm water. Wal-Mart will also have a big area of impervious surface, which can?t absorb water and creates polluted runoff, he said. Some county officials have proposed a storm water runoff fee that would charge landowners according to the amount of impervious surface they own so money can be put back into storm water cleanup. But other officials think current legislation on the books that requires all developers to have a plan for storm water management is enough.

“I think the county has put together a very solid program with development balancing environmental needs,” said Aaron Greenfield, president of the Anne Arundel County Economic Development Corp.

Wal-Mart officials did not return calls seeking comment.

Del. David Boschert, R-Anne Arundel, said new businesses are more environmentally sound that the older ones in the county. “Businesses coming to the area now have to adhere to the laws we have on the books.” Boschert said, adding that cleanup efforts should be directed toward older businesses that were not required to have storm water management plans. But Anne Pearson, the director of the Alliance for Sustainable Communities, said many developers in the county use storm water ponds, which she considers inferior to other methods of controlling storm water. “They are based on the perception that it is all right to dump water from the land in the nearest waterway,” she said.

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