August 6, 2010

 

Former Tyson plant needs new wastewater rights

Berlin's former Tyson plant, a facility that has not been in operation for several years, is in need of a renewed wastewater permit.

 

Kathy Phillips, executive director of the Assateague Coastal Trust, says that the former Tyson property - now owned by Berlin Properties North (BPN) - should not receive a discharge permit it has applied for from the Maryland Department of the Environment. Berlin Councilman Troy Purnell is a managing partner of BPN.

 

"There is no need for a discharge permit because there is no discharge. There is no reason for that permit to be renewed," Phillips said.

 

She said her organisation would oppose BPN's proposed renewal of the property's discharge permit. The company applied for the renewal in the spring, and a public hearing on it will be held in Ocean Pines August 19.

 

According to the hearing notice, BPN wants to renew the permit the industrial property had to discharge 800,000 gallons per day of wastewater to Kitts Branch, a tributary of Newport Bay. MDE proposes to reissue the permit paperwork, but additional information would have to be submitted before discharge could flow.

 

Phillips said she recognises the permit renewal does not allow discharge right away. But she's afraid it means that one day the property can discharge again into Kitts Branch, an impaired waterway. "That worries us. We don't need any more discharges into Kitts Branch," she said.

 

Officials from MDE say renewing the property's permit now will give them more control over future pollution limits. The discharge permit, which expired in August 2008, has been administratively extended until now.

 

"The regulations as they exist allow the permitee to have an administratively extended permit, which would allow them to discharge with the same limits as the existing permit. We did not want that to happen, so we are proposing to issue the new permit with stricter discharge limits," said MDE spokesperson Dawn Stoltzfus.

 

She said the renewed permit would not allow 800,000 gallons per day of discharge. It would sanction only stormwater or clean water until BPN, or a future owner, filed a permit modification request that went into specifics about what would be discharged.

 

"In other words, resumption of the previously permitted discharge is prohibited," Stoltzfus said.

 

Purnell, who purchased the former poultry plant about five years ago, said the property is on the market, but that he would be willing to rent it or redevelop it.