Opinion: Does Hogan Care More About Wealthy Corporations Than the Bay?

During Larry Hogan’s campaign to become governor in 2014, he explicitly stated that Maryland must hold Exelon accountable for its pollution coming out of the Conowingo Dam. However, Gov. Hogan has not followed through on his word and has now fumbled on his duties to protect the citizens of Maryland.

Instead, Hogan is protecting the most profitable utility in the nation. The Conowingo Dam has continued to impact Chesapeake Bay health since Hurricane Agnes swept through the region in 1972.

Gov. Hogan applauded Maryland’s 2018 water quality certification, which required up to $172 million per year to be paid by Exelon in lieu of nutrient reductions that the dam is responsible for discharging. Hogan stated, “The certification provides a strong framework for working with private partners such as Exelon to take real actions to address sediment and nutrient pollution problems caused by the dam.”

Exelon was not happy with the conditions of the certification and filed state and federal legal challenges against it while claiming that Maryland officials waived their right to issue a certification. In October 2019, both parties met behind closed doors without public participation and negotiated a settlement agreement that provided less than 1% of the funding that the water quality certification required as prescribed to protect water quality.

States have the right under the Clean Water Act to deliver a certification for federally licensed projects such as Conowingo and include any conditions the state feels would protect water quality for the term of the license, in this case, 50 years.

By supporting this settlement agreement, Gov. Hogan breaks his promise to hold Exelon responsible for the pollution coming out of their dam.

Some might say, “Well, all that pollution is coming from upstream, so it isn’t Exelon’s responsibility.”

Pollution may be coming from upstream, but the Conowingo Dam is an unnatural obstruction and has stockpiled sediments and nutrients to the point where the reservoir is now full. Having a 94-foot-tall dam 10 miles from the Bay doesn’t allow for natural attenuation of those pollutants downstream. This dam is now a “loaded cannon” which fires frequent sediment shots straight to the nation’s largest estuary.

Since the reservoir is at capacity, it doesn’t take much flow for the Mighty Susquehanna to scour nutrients and sediments from behind the dam that it sends downstream.

This influx of nutrients and sediment causes great harm to the Lower River and Chesapeake Bay by smothering subaquatic vegetation, causing massive dead zones and killing fish. It also has put Maryland’s watermen out of business and will eventually collapse the seafood industry of Maryland and Virginia when the next big hurricane occurs, likely in the next 50 years.

The loaded cannon is preparing its biggest shot yet, unless Exelon pays its fair share to dredge the sediment.

Additionally, the settlement agreement was incorporated into the federal license and by doing so the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission acted unlawfully. Since the state’s water quality certification didn’t just disappear and was issued timely, FERC cannot simply wish it away. It still exists and those conditions that Maryland originally prescribed should be included.

Waterkeepers Chesapeake, Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper, ShoreRivers represented by EarthJustice and joined by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation filed an appeal in the Washington, D.C., Circuit Court against FERC for issuing the license and essentially letting Exelon off the hook by not including conditions of the water quality certification.

Given the governor’s hypocritical support of the settlement, Hogan then applauded the license agreement.

He most recently proved that he doesn’t care about the livelihoods of fishermen or the watermen of Maryland by requesting the Maryland attorney general to file a motion to intervene against our lawsuit with FERC and support the license agreement.

Gov. Hogan obviously is not thinking clearly or has been persuaded by others to support this 50-year license for Conowingo Dam. Now he’s flipped, and it will be the taxpayers of Maryland on the hook for the harm this dam causes, not Exelon.

Gov. Hogan should be protecting Marylanders’ interests, not protecting Exelon, the most profitable energy utility in the country. It’s also worth noting that a subsidiary of Exelon was caught bribing government officials in Illinois and had to pay $200 million in fines for doing so.

–TED EVGENIADIS

The writer is the Lower Susquehanna riverkeeper.

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