So … never mind. The challenge to the $340 million deal to keep Conowingo Dam generating power flickered out even more quickly than it arose.
The Clean Chesapeake Coalition, a group of rural Maryland counties, had filed an appeal in early December protesting an agreement that Gov. Wes Moore announced in October clearing the way for Constellation Energy to renew its federal license to operate the hydroelectric facility on the lower Susquehanna River.
The appeal, originally filed on behalf of four Eastern Shore counties, contended that the measures promised in the agreement fell short of what’s needed to offset the sediment and nutrient pollution escaping from behind the dam. It also argued that the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) failed to conduct required studies and didn’t give adequate public notice or collect public comments before agreeing to the deal.
State officials responded to the challenge by waging a lobbying and public-relations campaign to explain the deal and mollify its critics. MDE officials made the rounds, presenting their case to individual counties — and collectively at the December meeting of the Maryland Association of Counties in Cambridge.
The Clean Chesapeake Coalition has long argued that the state has placed an undue burden on rural counties downstream to meet pollution reduction targets while neglecting the dam’s role in fouling the Bay. It has lobbied for years for the state to dredge out the nutrient-enriched sediment built up behind the dam, even though studies have questioned the cost and practicality of that solution.
In the agreement announced in October — reached after months of closed-door haggling with MDE, Waterkeepers Chesapeake and the Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper — Constellation pledged to fund a variety of measures to offset the dam’s impact on the river and the Bay. The two environmental groups had earned a right to participate in negotiations because they successfully challenged an earlier, much more limited agreement between MDE and Constellation.
Included in the new deal is money for shoreline restoration, fish passage projects, a freshwater mussel hatchery and planting trees and underwater grasses. The pact also includes $18.7 million to support additional studies on dredging, state officials pointed out. And they offered seats to the protesting counties on a committee being formed to advise MDE on how to spend the settlement money.
On Jan. 2, the coalition notified MDE and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that the group was withdrawing its appeal of MDE’s revised water quality certification for the dam.
Charles “Chip” MacLeod, the coalition’s lawyer, who had complained about being kept in the dark about settlement talks, said the appeal did help remedy that.
“It is fair to say that since the appeal was filed, there have been lots of discussion between state and county officials about the Conowingo factor and concerns of the most impacted jurisdictions,” he said in an email. “Those talks resulted in a commitment from MDE that the counties will indeed have a seat at the table when funds … are being spent.”