A Cautionary Tale

Let us begin with a cautionary and, unfortunately, true tale. The Bethlehem Steel facility at Sparrow's Point, Maryland, is among the largest integrated steel mills in the country, with multiple production lines and a new $ 300 million, state-of-the-art cold rolling mill.¹ With a capacity of 3.7 million tons of steel annually, the plant is a classic "Rust Belt" employer, anchoring Maryland's economy with some 4,000 unionized jobs.²

The plant is also the 48th largest discharger of toxic metals to surface waters in the nation, and the second largest discharger of persistent toxic metals to the Chesapeake Bay, with 43,150 pounds reported in the 1997 toxic release inventory (TRI).³ Its effluent travels from the Patapsco River to the Baltimore Harbor and from there to the Chesapeake Bay. The Baltimore Harbor is one of three "toxic hot spots" afflicting the Chesapeake Bay.⁴ The Baltimore Harbor is considered a sufficiently serious threat to the Chesapeake Bay that the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) has announced plans to issue new, more stringent, water quality-based standards, or total maximum daily loads (TMDLs), for toxic substances.⁵