Plans for a Baltimore facility to treat nearly 700,000 gallons of contaminated water from the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment have been scuttled.
Clean Harbors, Inc., which was going to treat the water, announced Tuesday that that will not happen.
The original plan was for the water to be treated at Clean Harbors, then be dumped into the Back River Wastewater treatment plant in Dundalk. That was met with an outcry from politicians and residents alike, who said the troubled facility could not handle the job.
Jim Buckley, a spokesman for Clean Harbors, wrote in a statement, “While we are confident that our Baltimore facility is safe to handle and process that waste, as we have made clear from the beginning of this process, we would only be moving forward with the approval of all federal, state and local regulators.”
Clean Harbors backed out of treating the East Palestine water after Mayor Brandon Scott announced Monday that he had directed the Department of Public Works to modify discharge permits so that the treated water cannot enter the city’s water system.
“After legal review, the City’s Law Department has determined that the Department of Public Works has the authority to modify discharge permits in an effort to 'safeguard Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTW) from interference, pass-through, or contamination of treatment by-products,’” Scott wrote in a statement Monday.
In a letter addressed to Clean Harbors, also published Monday, DPW wrote that the “request to discharge the East Palestine pretreated wastewater into the Baltimore City wastewater collection system is denied.”
Buckley, in his statement wrote, “Given the actions that Mayor Scott has taken in denying our request to discharge the East Palestine pretreated wastewater into the Baltimore City system, we will not be processing any of the wastewater from the EPA-regulated cleanup of the site in Ohio at our Baltimore plant.”
The Back River plant is owned by the city but is in Eastern Baltimore County. It has a troubled history. Last year, the state took over running the facility because it was dumping too much pollution in Back River. There was an explosion at the plant less than two weeks ago.
Baltimore County Councilman Todd Crandell, a Republican who represents the area around Back River, said "given its recent history of problems (Back River) was not the appropriate facility."
Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski said in a statement, “The health and safety of Baltimore County residents and our waterways remains a top priority, which was why we supported efforts to prevent the discharge of treated materials into our shared sewer system and are encouraged that Clean Harbors has announced plans to identify alternative solutions to process this wastewater.”
