More News

College fined for polluting Sligo Creek

State says Columbia Union warned about discharging substances into waterway

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

To read the report, click here.

Columbia Union College illegally discharged pollutants into Sligo Creek over a 55-month period beginning June 2002, despite several warnings from inspectors, the Maryland Department of the Environment ruled earlier this month.

Floor drains, sinks and overflows in and around the college’s physical plant are apparently connected to stormwater drains instead of the sewer system. The MDE findings, signed March 13 by the head of the Water Management Administration, also include a penalty of $28,900 for three counts of violating state law, according to the document.

Included in the findings from the Water Management Administration are 10 instances of unauthorized discharging of pollutants into the creek.

The state also ruled the college failed to comply with laws related to the monitoring, record-keeping and reporting requirements for swimming pools in general and that Columbia Union College failed to obtain a discharge permit for its swimming pool, located behind the school’s gymnasium on Maplewood Avenue.

A college spokesman said Tuesday an internal investigation began this week and that Columbia Union has appealed the ruling, requesting a state hearing to discuss the findings.

The spokesman, Scott Steward, said an executive committee was scheduled to meet Tuesday to begin looking at the situation and determine what role, if any, staffing changes in the college’s facilities department may have played in the incidents. ‘‘We have had some turnover,” he said.

College President Randal Wiseby will be involved in the committee’s work, Steward said.

The state’s investigation began June 12, 2002, following an anonymous tip about a milky substance going into Sligo Creek near the intersection of Maple Avenue and Sligo Creek Parkway, according to a copy of the administrative order.

Later that day and again two days later, a state inspector saw the discharge coming from a 36-inch storm drain pipe and determined the discharge may have been white latex paint from paint brushes cleaned in a sink in the college’s physical plant building.

Less than two weeks later, a follow-up inspection found that someone had backwashed the college’s swimming pool filtration system through the storm drain system, causing a milky discharge. The state also found the college was not operating the swimming pool with the correct permit.

State cites CUC for polluting Sligo Creek The Maryland Department of the Environment issued an administrative order March 13 against Columbia Union College for ‘‘unauthorized discharge into Sligo Creek.” The order stems from a 55-month investigation that started with an anonymous tip. A college spokesman said this week CUC has appealed the ruling. To read a copy of the state order, visit www.gazette.net⁄takoma⁄news.

Subsequent inspections on July 22-23, 2002; March 25 and June 23, 2003; April 28 and May 12, 2005; and January 12, 2006, found what the state called ‘‘unauthorized discharge into Sligo Creek,” according to the order.

State representatives ultimately determined that the floor and sink drains in the physical plant building were connected to the stormwater drains. As a result, fluids from the backwashing of the swimming pool filters, the flushing of the college’s cooling tower or washing dirty paint brushes in a work sink ended up in the creek, the state ruled.

Marty Ittner, a neighbor of the college who is active with Friends of Sligo Creek, said the situation had left her feeling ‘‘sheer anger.”

‘‘To see the first incident was bad enough, but to see the [liquid solution left over from] cleaning their cooling coils get dumped directly into the creek, and to have made several follow-up calls and then see something else going into the creek really makes me mad,” said Ittner, who is the Friends’ creek steward for the section of Sligo Creek running behind the college and Washington Adventist Hospital.

‘‘It’s anger at my government, and anger at the college,” she said. ‘‘And then to find out that the two years I’ve been involved is only half the equation? That it’s been going on since 2002, when there was some white paint dumped? That just makes me madder.”

Takoma Park City Manager Barbara Burns Matthews said the state has enforcement authority for this type of investigation, but that because of limited staffing, it takes time for MDE investigations to move through the system and then get the approval of the attorney general’s office.

As a result, Matthews said the city attorney is drafting legislation for the City Council’s review that would shift enforcement authority to Montgomery County’s Department of Environmental Protection. Matthews said she expects that legislation could be in front of the council in as soon as a month.