Environmental Groups & Community Members Urge MDE to Protect Waterways & Swiftly Enact Strong Toxic Water Protections

Annapolis, MD -  Today, the Sierra Club, along with 21 other community organizations and hundreds of concerned Maryland residents submitted comments urging the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) to finalize a permit update for two of Maryland’s coal plants and establish the earliest possible compliance date for toxic discharge limits in order to protect families and waterways. The covered pollutants include mercury and arsenic both of which can be extremely toxic to humans and pose a serious threat to public health and waterways. 

The Brandon Shores & Herbert A. Wagener coal-fired power plants located in Anne Arundel County have been operating under an outdated water discharge permit for years. MDE’s new draft permit for the plants calls for considerable reductions in toxic metal discharges to comply with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 2015 Effluent Limitation Guidelines.

The Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Senior Campaign Representative David Smedick released the following statement in response: 

“As long as Maryland has dirty coal-fired plants in the state, MDE must ensure that toxic metals and other coal pollutants are subject to the most stringent applicable limits. Thankfully MDE has proposed common-sense protections against harmful, dangerous coal byproducts and hundreds of Marylanders and numerous organizations know it’s the right thing to do. Now we just need the MDE to finalize and implement these safeguards as soon as possible to better protect Maryland’s communities and waterways from toxic metal discharges.”