{"id":6023,"date":"2021-04-19T16:56:29","date_gmt":"2021-04-19T20:56:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/waterkeeperschesapeake.org\/?p=6023"},"modified":"2021-04-19T17:34:34","modified_gmt":"2021-04-19T21:34:34","slug":"waterkeeper-groups-petition-for-rehearing-on-conowingo-dam-federal-license","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/waterkeeperschesapeake.org\/es\/waterkeeper-groups-petition-for-rehearing-on-conowingo-dam-federal-license\/","title":{"rendered":"Waterkeeper Grupos Petici\u00f3n de Nueva Audiencia sobre Licencia Federal Conowingo Dam"},"content":{"rendered":"

License issued by FERC is illegal under the Clean Water Act<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

(Takoma Park, MD) Today, Waterkeepers Chesapeake, Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper, and Sassafras Riverkeeper, represented by Earthjustice and joined by Chesapeake Bay Foundation, <\/span>filed a petition<\/span><\/a> for a rehearing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Agency (FERC) on its approval of the 50-year relicensing of the Conowingo Dam. This petition was filed because FERC\u2019s action was unlawful under the Clean Water Act (CWA) since Maryland issued a water quality certification in 2018 under section 401 of the CWA and never withdrew it. This certification outlined conditions to address the adverse impacts the dam has on the Lower Susquehanna River and the Chesapeake Bay, which should have been included in FERC\u2019s relicensing of the dam, but were not.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMaryland issued a timely water quality certification with substantial protection, then inexplicably made an agreement to waive their authority to issue this very certification more than a year and half later,\u201d said Betsy Nicholas, Executive Director of Waterkeepers Chesapeake. \u201cBy entering into this secret settlement agreement, the state and FERC ignored public participation procedures \u2013 which is also illegal under the Clean Water Act.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Exelon\u2019s response to the water quality certification was to file four legal challenges that resulted in an <\/span>extremely flawed settlement agreement<\/span><\/a> between Exelon and the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE). Even more egregious, all of the weak terms of the settlement agreement relating to water quality are not included in the license, meaning that they cannot be enforced through this 50-year license by FERC or any third parties. Additionally, in the settlement agreement, Exelon is only responsible for paying less than one percent of what was required under the original 401 certification.<\/span><\/p>\n

The practical effect of FERC\u2019s order is to remove all the requirements MDE found necessary to assure Conowingo Dam\u2019s compliance with water quality standards from the dam\u2019s license. FERC makes no claim that the conditions in its license will ensure that the dam complies. Far from it, FERC insists the dam\u2019s compliance with water quality standards is irrelevant to its licensing decision.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unfathomable that FERC insists that whether the dam complies with water quality standards is irrelevant to its licensing decision,\u201d said Ted Evgeniadis, Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper. \u201cAnd to make matters worse, the settlement has grossly insufficient funds to deal with the risks to the Susquehanna River and Chesapeake Bay. The settlement requires less than 1 percent of what is required, while protecting Exelon from any Clean Water Act or other water quality laws <\/span>for the next 50 years<\/i><\/b>, and leaving taxpayers shouldering the full burden of paying for the cleanup of the dam.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The groups\u2019 petition also outlines how FERC\u2019s order does not rest on meaningful consideration of environmental impacts required by the Federal Power Act and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).<\/span><\/p>\n

FERC received information showing the dam\u2019s impacts will be significantly worse than it had estimated when it prepared an environmental impact statement for the project in 2015. In particular, \u201cscour events\u201d (where storms dislodge major quantities of nutrients and sediment from the reservoir and wash them over the dam) will increase in both frequency and severity as climate change causes more frequent and larger storms to occur. In addition, NEPA and the Federal Power Act do not allow FERC to issue a license that chooses an alternative flow regime for the dam that has the least impact on generation, which it did in this case; it must account for environmental harm.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Sassafras River is only 11 miles from the mouth of the Susquehanna, so we are one of the first areas to feel the effects every time the Conowingo flood gates are opened and trash, sediment, and other pollutants are allowed to flow free,\u201d said Zack Kelleher, Sassafras Riverkeeper with ShoreRivers. \u201cExelon — a billion dollar company — is the only entity that profits from the water flowing through the dam. It is inexcusable that Maryland watermen, boaters, homeowners, and taxpayers have to suffer the consequences of this trash and pollution flowing down the Susquehanna and are then expected to pay for the cleanup.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

FERC also received information showing that dredging is significantly cheaper and more effective than it recognized when it completed the environmental impact statement for the dam in 2015. Failure to consider this new information violates NEPA and the Federal Power Act.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe will work to hold Exelon accountable for its fair share of the dam cleanup through every venue possible,\u201d added Nicholas. \u201cThe future of the Chesapeake Bay, the health of the waters and local communities, and the survival of the dependent fisheries is far too important to allow Maryland to simply shirk its duties and let Exelon push their expenses on to the taxpayers of Bay states to stop pollution.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Media Contacts:<\/b><\/p>\n

Betsy Nicholas, (202) 423-0504, <\/span>betsy@waterkeeperschesapeake.org
\n<\/span>Ted Evgeniadis, (609) 571-5278, riverkeeper@lowersusquehannariverkeeper.org<\/span><\/p>\n

Press statement on petition to FERC for rehearing<\/a><\/p>\n

* * * * * * * * * *<\/p>\n

Background<\/b><\/p>\n

MDE\u2019s 401 CWA certifications for Conowingo Dam in 2018 determined that the dam \u201c<\/span>has significantly and adversely impacted biota in the Lower River and the northern Bay over the past 90 years of operation\u201d by interrupting the natural flow regimes and fish passage upstream and downstream, and halted sediment transport downstream.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition, MDE found that the dam reservoir is now full as \u201cno efforts have been undertaken over the life of the [dam]\u2026. to maintain any trapping function.\u201d Now, during large storm events, sediment is scoured from behind the dam and discharged downstream to the Lower River and the Bay.<\/span><\/p>\n

To address these adverse impacts, the Certification required Exelon to reduce the amount of nitrogen in the Dam\u2019s yearly discharges by 6,000,000 pounds and the amount of phosphorus by 260,000 pounds. Alternatively, it allows Exelon to make payments in lieu of these pollution reductions, in the amount $17 per pound of nitrogen and $270 per pound of phosphorus. Over the 50-year license, the money value of the combined nutrient reductions (or payments in lieu of such reductions) is approximately $8.6 billion.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition, <\/span>based on these findings, MDE listed the Susquehanna below the Dam as impaired \u201cdue to pollution caused by flow alteration\u201d in Maryland\u2019s Final 2018 Integrated Report of Surface Water Quality.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2019, <\/span>MDE\u2019s watershed implementation plan to bring the Chesapeake Bay into compliance with water quality standards depended on Exelon achieving significant reductions in the nutrients that flow over the Dam during scour events. According to MDE, these reductions were needed \u201cto mitigate the water quality impacts of the Dam\u2019s lost trapping capacity\u201d which \u201cthreatens the ability of both the state and the region to meet their Chesapeake Bay cleanup goals.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Exelon\u2019s response was to file four legal challenges to the Certification that resulted in an extremely<\/span> flawed settlement agreement<\/span><\/a> between Exelon and MDE, most of which is not included in FERC\u2019s relicensing order. Exelon is now only responsible for paying less than one percent of what was required under the 401 certification.<\/span><\/p>\n

In March 2021, FERC <\/span>issued an order<\/span><\/a> for the 50-relicensing of Conowingo Dam. All of the weak terms of the settlement agreement relating to water quality are not included in the license, meaning that they cannot be enforced through this 50-year license by FERC or any third parties. Additionally, in the settlement agreement, Exelon is only responsible for paying less than one percent of what was required under the original 401 certification.<\/span><\/p>\n

FERC received information showing the Dam\u2019s impacts will be significantly worse than it had estimated when it prepared an environmental impact statement for the project in 2015. In particular, \u201cscour events\u201d \u2013 where storms scour or dislodge major quantities of nutrients and sediment from the reservoir and wash them over the Dam \u2013 will increase in both frequency and severity as climate change causes more frequent and larger storms to occur.<\/span><\/p>\n

FERC also received information showing that dredging is significantly cheaper and more effective than it recognized when it completed the environmental impact statement (EIS) for the Dam in 2015.<\/span><\/p>\n

The practical effect of FERC\u2019s order is to remove all the requirements MDE found necessary to assure the Dam\u2019s compliance with water quality standards from the Dam\u2019s license. FERC makes no claim that the conditions in its license will ensure that the Dam complies. Far from it, FERC insists the Dam\u2019s compliance with water quality standards is irrelevant to its licensing decision.<\/span><\/p>\n

More information at <\/span>https:\/\/waterkeeperschesapeake.org\/conowingo-dam\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

La licencia emitida por FERC es ilegal seg\u00fan la Ley de Agua Limpia (Takoma Park, MD) Hoy, Waterkeepers Chesapeake, Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper y Sassafras Riverkeeper, representados por Earthjustice y acompa\u00f1ados por Chesapeake Bay Foundation, presentaron una petici\u00f3n de reaudiencia ante la Agencia Federal Reguladora de Energ\u00eda (FERC) sobre su aprobaci\u00f3n de la renovaci\u00f3n de la licencia por 50 a\u00f1os de Conowingo\u2026 Lee mas<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3922,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,577,27],"tags":[107,544,82,70,688,67,84,174,172],"class_list":["post-6023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conowingo-dam","category-legal-actions","category-press-statements","tag-chesapeake-bay","tag-chesapeake-bay-tmdl","tag-clean-water-act","tag-conowingo-dam","tag-federal-power-act","tag-ferc","tag-maryland","tag-nepa","tag-susquehanna-river"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/waterkeeperschesapeake.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/waterkeeperschesapeake.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/waterkeeperschesapeake.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waterkeeperschesapeake.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waterkeeperschesapeake.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/waterkeeperschesapeake.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waterkeeperschesapeake.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/waterkeeperschesapeake.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waterkeeperschesapeake.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waterkeeperschesapeake.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6023"}],"curies":[{"name":"gracias","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}