PHILADELPHIA ( September 18, 2014) -- E.P.A. is soliciting public review on its suggestion to enter into an arrangement with Sparrows Point Terminal LLC (SPT) that will support SPT's planned purchase and redevelopment of the Sparrows Point facility in Baltimore, Md., and ensure environmental cleanup at the property.
The suggested Prospective Purchaser Arrangement (PPA) requires SPT to perform specified cleanup activities at the Sparrows Point facility; contribute $3 million toward the offshore environmental investigation, and pay EPA's oversight costs with an initial payment of $100,000 and up to an additional $50,000 per year.
In return, the PPA will resolve potential claims the U.S. government would have under environmental laws governing the cleanup of hazardous waste and contamination at properties.
SPT projects to redevelop the Sparrows Point facility into a transportation, manufacturing, and logistics industrial campus.
E.P.A. is accepting comments until October 18, 2014.
The Sparrows Point facility is located on the 3100-acre Sparrows Point peninsula bounded by Back River, Bear Creek, and the Patapsco River. In excess of 100 years of industrial activity, primarily steelmaking, has resulted in the contamination of the location and some offshore areas.
In 1997, the then-owner of Sparrows Point facility, Bethlehem Steel Corporation, entered into a judicial consent decree with the U.S. and the Maryland Department of the Environment. The consent decree requires location investigation and cleanup studies, certain interim cleanup measures at the most contaminated part of the facility (Coke Point Peninsula), and compliance with air pollution limits.
In 2003, Sparrows Point was sold as part of a bankruptcy reorganization. Subsequent changes in ownership and operations at Sparrows Point slowed the pace of the work under the consent decree.
The current owner of the Sparrows Point Facility is Sparrows Point LLC, which is entering into a purchase Arrangement with new owner, Sparrows Point Terminal LLC (SPT). E.P.A. anticipates that the sale of the Sparrows Point facility to SPT will take place on September 18, 2014.
Comments should be submitted by mail or email by October 18, 2014 to Luis Pizarro at U.S. E.P.A. (3LC20)), 1650 Arch Street., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103 or
[email protected]
For a copy of the PPA, go to http://
www.epa.gov/reg3wcmd/public_notices.htm.
For more information on Sparrows Point, go to:
http://www.epa.gov/reg3wcmd/ca/md/webpages/mdd053945432.html
