A Baltimore environmental group is expected to release the first extensive look at air quality around a coal fly ash dump site in Gambrills in Anne Arundel.
Environment Maryland will unveil the report Thursday, but group Director Brad Heavner would not release any details. While focus has been on the fly ash?s contamination of the water supply, little attention has been placed on airborne fly ash.
Residents and activists in that area have said fly ash has been escaping from dump trucks and coating cars and houses.
“There were a number of homes that needed to be power-washed,” said Dick Lahn, a Crofton-area activist, during an interview in October.
Fly ash contains heavy metals such as aluminum and substances such as quartz, which, if inhaled in moderate doses, can cause lung damage. Some studies have shown that exposure to fly ash causes airway obstruction and inflammation, but not to the same extent seen in coal miners. The ash is a waste byproduct of coal combustion at Constellation Energy power plants.
The contamination started at two former gravel pits in Gambrills that were being filled with coal fly ash from Constellation Energy power plants. The ash seeped into the local aquifer. Dumping began in 1995, and contamination was first noticed in 1999. Efforts to stop people from drinking the water didn?t start until last year.
Residents around the dump site have either been put on the public water system or have been supplied with bottled water from Constellation Energy, which was issued a $500,000 fine by the Maryland Department of the Environment.
However, those measures do not account for improving air quality at the site. Constellation Energy officials have said fly ash will not longer be dumped at the site.
Gambrills resident Gayle Queen isleading a class-action lawsuit against Constellation Energy. Two wells on her street tested between 1,710 and 2,270 parts per billion; the federal Environmental Protection Agency?s standard is 200 ppb.
Queen said in November that several neighbors have died of cancer, and her husband died of renal failure. However, Anne Arundel has one of the highest cancer morality rates in the state.
MDE is addressing air quality and fly ash in its proposed regulation changes, which would require water tanks at the power plant and dumping sites, as well as improved dust covers on trucks hauling the ash.
