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Attorney general to audit St. Mary's River
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
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ANNAPOLIS — As part of his efforts to crack down on illegal polluters in Maryland's waterways, Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler will conduct an audit of the St. Mary's River next month.
The daylong expedition scheduled for April 29 will include meetings with local elected officials, a boat tour with environmentalists to point out pollution hotspots and a public town hall meeting on the river's health that will probably be held at St. Mary's College of Maryland.
The goal is to "find out what the pollution is, where it is and who's doing it," said Raquel Guillory, a spokeswoman for Gansler (D). "No one knows better the issues facing a particular watershed than the people who live near it. They know where the polluters are."
The attorney general conducted audits last year in the Chester and Pocomoke rivers on the Eastern Shore, the Monocacy River in Frederick County and Great Seneca Creek in Montgomery County. This is the first one he will lead in 2009.
Each audit has revealed problems specific to that river, and uncovered failures consistent to each waterway, Guillory said. A report on the four audits conducted in 2008 is expected to be released prior to Gansler's visit to St. Mary's County.
The boat tour is particularly helpful, she said, as local environmentalists identify high-pollutant areas where nitrogen levels are elevated or runoff from nearby development harms water quality.
The river audits ultimately could help the state meet its goals to restore the Chesapeake Bay and fulfills a campaign promise Gansler made to be tough on environmental polluters. "Whatever is wrong with the bay is wrong with the rivers, because they all feed into the bay," Guillory said.
Previous audits have led to environmental actions. A few months after visiting the Chester River watershed, the state announced a settlement with Velsicol Chemical Co. of Chestertown. The company was ordered to clean up contaminated soil at its site, improve its wastewater treatment system, reduce the phosphorus it discharges and pay $200,000 to the Maryland Clean Water Fund.
