Residents Seek Broad Summit On Environmental Concerns

Residents of Odenton, Gambrills and Crofton are seeking to hold a major summit on the issue of environmental concerns in West Anne Arundel County.

Members of several community groups in the area said the meeting would include discussion on a broad range of ecological concerns in the area; including chemical plumes in groundwater in Odenton and fly ash in Gambrills.

The call for the summit comes after three consecutive days featuring public forums focused on environmental concerns, but residents said a single, broad forum featuring input from county and state officials is needed.

On Friday morning, members of the Community Leader’s Roundtable met at Bob Evans Restaurant to discuss strategies heightening public awareness of concerns over groundwater pollution. Environmental issues were also on the agenda of this week’s meetings of the Greater Odenton Improvement Association and the Fort Meade Restoration Advisory Board.

The meetings were sparsely attended by the public, however, and organizers expressed frustration that officials from the county and the Maryland Department of the Environment declined to appear.

“There’s more and more competition for peoples’ time, but this ties into what goes on in this area and how it impacts peoples’ lives,” said Tim Berkoff, chairman of the environmental committee for Crofton First.

Berkoff is among those concerned about the impact of fly ash contamination near the site of the new Village South at Waugh Chapel development. Greenberg Gibbons, the developer of the project, has said the construction will essential serve as a “cap” to prevent fly ash from spreading. But environmental activists said not enough is being done to actually clean up the contamination or address pollution that is further out.

Residents said there is a lack of good information on the scope of the contamination problem.

“We need more data as to the specifics of what is happening at the present time,” said Norm Harvey,  president of the Greater Gambrills Improvement Association.

Meanwhile, residents of Odenton have been dealing with several plumes of chemical contamination stemming from old industrial sites at Fort Meade. The Army has installed monitoring wells in several spots throughout Odenton, and has supplied drinking water to residents who are not hooked up to public service.

While the chemical plumes in Odenton and fly ash in Gambrills are separate environmental issues, activists said they are interrelated because of connecting waterways and aquifers. 

"It's like everyone's looking at the fingers, but not the hand," Patuxent Riverkeeper Fred Tutman said.

Also on Friday, environmentalists also proposed reaching out to the academic community for help in researching the scope of the environmental problems in the area. Tutman said he will seek assistance from the University of Maryland or Morgan State to draft a succinct summary of the issue.