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South RIVERKEEPER® Drew Koslow pulls a water quality measuring device from the headwaters of Church Creek. The device recorded sediment running off from the Annapolis Towne Centre at Parole, the subject of a lawsuit settled this week.
Capital File Photo, courtesy The Capital
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Annapolis Towne Centre reaches agreement with conservation groups
By E.B. FURGURSON III, Staff Writer, The Capital
Published March 27, 2008.
Conservation groups have reached an agreement with Annapolis Towne Centre at Parole to dismiss a lawsuit charging the development violated the Clean Water Act by allowing sediment-laden runoff to flow into the South River.
The South Riverkeeper, the South River Federation and Chesapeake Bay Foundation filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in September, 2006. In the "citizen suit" they laid out a series of incidents when the development's storm water protections failed to keep runoff from pouring into Church Creek, and downstream to the river.
"We are pleased we have reached an agreeable outcome and look forward to moving ahead in a manner that will benefit the South River," South River Federation Executive Director Matt Berres said.
Jon Mueller, staff attorney for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation said it had been, "a bit frustrating to have to (resort to) a lawsuit to get it resolved with Annapolis Towne Centre, as well as the failure of government agencies that are responsible for enforcing erosion and sediment control plans and the Clean Water Act."
In the settlement, Annapolis Towne Centre and the company guiding the development, Greenberg Gibbons Commercial Corp., denied all the allegations, but agreed to pay $120,000 to remedy the impacts to the creek, monitor future compliance with sediment and soil erosion laws, and legal fees.
"We look forward to working collaboratively with the South River Federation and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation to make the Annapolis Towne Centre a model of environmental excellence for projects throughout Maryland," said Brian Gibbons, president and chief executive of Greenberg Gibbons."We installed a $4 million underground stormwater treatment system and did twice as much as was required for stormwater treatment where there was none before."
The agreement, filed in federal court Tuesday, also stipulates Greenberg Gibbons is not the "owner or developer" of the property, though they were the main mover in getting the 33-acre plan approved and the company Web site touts Annapolis Towne Centre as one of the company's projects.
As construction has proceeded the parcel has been split into individual lots, each developed by the company that will occupy the lot.
Problems began soon after construction broke ground in 2006.
The developers tried to comply with every technique county officials suggested. They even using new cutting edge techniques with chemicals, mulches and different pond designs.
With close to 28 acres graded and exposed, even those techniques weren't enough. Rules say a site needs to be stabilized, by planting grass for instance, within 48 hours after the earth is disturbed.
But the county admitted it was hard-pressed to even get half of the land stabilized.
The Riverkeeper installed a state-of-the-art monitoring device, identical to that used by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, to check water quality near the site's stormwater outlet in the headwater of Church Creek.
Several times it recorded spikes well above maximum allowable turbidity, the measure of solids in the water, during and shortly after rain events.
On a few occasions it peaked days after such storms, leading the Riverkeeper and other observers to believe sediment traps were flushed out against the rules.
The Clean Water Act comes to bear because major construction sites operate under a statewide general permit limiting effluents based on using the "best available technology" and "best practices" to control sediment and storm water management.
The EPA enforces federal pollution standards for sediment under the Clean Water Act through the general permit issued to the state.
The agreement stipulates the defendants denied all the allegations and notes "no governmental organization has charged defendants with any violation of the General Permit or the Clean Water Act."
Under the agreement, which still has to be approved by a judge, the $120,000 will be split three ways.
$45,000 will go toward a project to mitigate storm waster and pollutant damage to Church Creek.
$10,000 will pay for an independent consultant to monitor Annapolis Towne Centre's compliance with pollution, sediment and stormwater regulations and make written recommendations to correct any problems.
And the remaining $65,000 will go to pay legal fees incurred by the Riverkeeper and CBF.
Mr. Berres said lawsuits are a necessary arrow in the conservationist quiver and not something taken lightly.
"As a watershed organization we want to be vigilant to guard against activity that could be affecting the health of the resource. We want to see activities that could be having a detrimental effect corrected," he said.
"It is not about winning. It is about protecting the resource."
(This article published here courtesy The Capital.)
