Advocate Says Improvement Needed to Fight Industrial Pollution in Little Patuxent River

A local river advocate says the Little Patuxent River continues to be at risk for pollution from industrial waste and an inadequate water treatment facility. Industry and county officials say improvements have already been made.

At a Savage Community Association meeting this week, Patuxent Riverkeeper Fred Tutman told members that the local wastewater treatment plant in Savage is “a leaky system.”

He also said that Maryland and Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative Association agreed two years ago to make changes to its wastewater discharge practices at its North Laurel factory – but the river remains at risk.

Tutman said that river water is leaking into the wastewater treatment pipes that carry raw sewage from the dairy plant. He believes this also means that the raw sewage is leaking back into the Little Patuxent River.

“It’s not stealthy. It’s not done in the middle of the night… It’s done in plain sight,” Tutman said. He cited a Howard County survey showing 40 percent of what was found in the sewage line was not actually sewage, but water – water he believes came from local waterways.

But officials at the Howard County Department of Public Works see it differently.

Howard County spokesperson Kevin Enright said that from January 2010 through June 2010, the infiltration rate of water coming into the sewage system was about 31 percent, and that this is relatively low compared to some older systems in Baltimore city and around the region.

“The Little Patuxent Water Reclamation Plant itself has no leaks,” said Stephen Gerwin, Department of Public Works utilities chief. Most of the area’s sewage lines are below water levels so, naturally, ground and storm water will enter sewer lines, Gerwin said.

The Little Patuxent Water Reclamation Plant is the only wastewater treatment facility operated by Howard County. It serves Savage, Columbia and North Laurel – about 56 percent of the county’s population, according to its website.

Gerwin said two spills have occurred within the last year at the water treatment facility, which, by law, must be reported to the state.

But Gerwin said changes are being made to the water treatment facility, including the replacement of a main collector sewer in the Little Patuxent River, and completion of a .

In an interview with Savage-Guilford Patch, Tutman – who advocates for the Patuxent River in conjunction with the Waterkeeper Alliance, an international team of nonprofit waterway advocate groups – said the North Laurel dairy plant on Leishear Road is “historically, the largest industrial nutrient source on the Little Patuxent.”

According to the Chesapeake Bay Program, excess nutrients can cause harmful conditions for organisms in waterways. The CBP website says the two nutrients nitrogen and phosphorous are “the main cause of the bay's poor health.”

Nutrients flowing through the Little Patuxent River can travel down through the Patuxent River and eventually into the Chesapeake Bay. Nutrients in the bay lead to decreased oxygen levels, creating “dead zones” where crabs, fish and aquatic grasses can’t survive, according to CBP.

In response to Tutman’s comments, MDVA Milk spokesperson Amber DuMont told Patch that the plant is in compliance “with all local, state and federal regulations.”

DuMont said that last spring the facility replaced two evaporation machines with a new reverse osmosis evaporator. She said the new machine runs more efficiently and also cleans the water byproduct, called effluent, which is then discharged to the wastewater treatment plant.

Tutman said he was not aware of this new machinery, and added that none of the requests for information made by the Patuxent Riverkeeper office pertaining to new discharge lines and water pre-treatment machinery at the dairy plant have been answered.

The Little Patuxent River flows into the Patuxent River, and eventually the Chesapeake Bay, all of which have a troubled recent history when it comes to pollution.

The Patuxent River received a D-minus grade in the most recent Chesapeake Bay Report Card, which measures ecological indicators of water quality and growth of “healthy” aquatic life.

Also, early in 2008, the Maryland Department of the Environment took pictures documenting direct pollution from the dairy plant, where wastewater byproduct from the butter and dried milk processing was entering the river, Tutman said.

Tutman said those pictures eventually made their way to Howard County officials.

Officials then made an agreement with the plant to have its pre-treated water routed to the wastewater treatment facility, said Jay Apperson, a spokesman with the Maryland Department of the Environment.

A new discharge line feeding into the Little Patuxent Water Reclamation Plant was completed in November 2008, according to DuMont.

The Maryland Department of the Environment also acknowledged a history of National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) violations attributed to the milk plant. According to the Maryland Department of the Environment, the plant is classified as a “significant” industrial waste discharger.

“There have been a few occasions over the past few years when the discharge from the facility was in violation of its [NPDES] permit,” said Apperson, “but this did not rise to the level that penalties were in order.”

Apperson confirmed that the plant has changed operations in recent years to re-route wastewater to the treatment plant.

But Tutman remains concerned.

“Even if they’re going to solve the problem later, they’re still a little bit hazy about whether there’s a problem now,” he said, about the wastewater treatment plant. “So, to me, the [question] is not whether they’re on the case, but whether they’ve told the truth.”