Public Health Effects of Costco Gas Station Questioned

Kensington community groups have long argued that the proposed Costco gas station at will have substantial negative effects on the surrounding neighborhoods, particularly air pollution from long lines of idling cars.

Costco expects the 16-pump gas station (if approved) to handle 12 million gallons of gasoline a year, which would make it far and away the busiest gas station in Montgomery County.

The Kensington Heights Civic Association, which represents the neighborhood bordering the proposed site, has attempted to block the gas station on land use grounds. The organization has challenged Costco before the Department of Permitting Services and the Planning Board on the company's forest conservation plan exemption and parking waiver.  

"But there's another issue here, which is a public health issue," said KHCA member Larry Silverman, at a Thursday afternoon press conference at . In the background, bulldozers in the Wheaton Mall parking lot continued construction on the new Costco store. 

According to the KHCA's measurements, only 50 yards would separate the Costco gas station from the nearest homes. Between the gas station and the Kenmont tennis courts? 55 yards. All the emissions from the cars in the queue would therefore become a serious air quality problem for the neighborhood, Silverman said.

Silverman, an adjunct professor of environmental law and policy at Johns Hopkins University, claimed that the county executive has blocked them from meeting with county public health experts, and that Montgomery County councilmembers are showing "indifference" to the situation.

"We'd like to hear one person from the county who says that this is or is not a public health hazard," Silverman said.

After repeated requests that the Montgomery County government conduct a public health study about the project, the Kensington Heights Civic Association sought out its own expert, a professor from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health.

"Health effects of living near gasoline service stations are not well studied," wrote Patrick N. Breysse, PhD, CIH, in a March 5 letter to KHCA. (Read the full PDF of Breysse's letter.) Breysse analyzed existing studies about the cancer risks associated with gasoline service stations, but the reports he referenced deal with gas stations of smaller size (and therefore less pollution potential) than the one Costco is proposing to build in Wheaton. 

"In addition, it should be noted that the cancer risks assessment is limited to gas station activities along and as a result underestimates the potential excess risk associated without the overall Costco development since the store will result in increased customer and truck traffic and the nighttime truck delivery docks in close proximity to single family residences will add to the increased exposure," Breysse wrote.

Audubon Naturalist Society supports KHCA and the other eight member organizations of the Coalition of Kensington Communities.

"I think it's appalling that economic development would trump public health of the citizens in our county," said Audubon's Dolores Milmoe, who also came to the press conference.