Posted 9/20/2024, 2:45 a.m.

By Devin Crum

Officials from Tradepoint Atlantic have said they were “comfortable” offering a sum of $40 million as a community benefit in exchange for being able to deposit dredge material on Hart-Miller Island from the deepening of their port facility at Sparrows Point.

But members of a committee tasked with developing a community benefit agreement (CBA) to allow the project are now publicly signaling that more money will be required to gain their support, considering the scope of the project’s impact on the island and surrounding communities as well as how much money they believe will actually be available.

At the Sept. 16 meeting of the Hart-Miller Island CBA Steering Committee, some members indicated they will push for double TPA’s offer or more.

Committee member Josh Sines responded at the meeting to comments from some citizens – that the committee should decline to develop a CBA and recommend against moving forward with the dredge placement at HMI – by clarifying that their work is merely advisory and it is the Baltimore County Council who actually has the power to stop it by voting it down.

“We’re advisory to the Council voting on this and the county executive. If we choose not to [develop the CBA], they’re going to go through anyway and have some type of vote up there,” he opined.

However, Sameer Sidh, the county’s deputy administrative officer and an ex-officio member of the steering committee, assured that the intent in forming the committee was to be sure they heard the community’s wishes on the issue before entering into an agreement with TPA.

“So if I get the sense that the steering committee is dead-against this, rest assured I don’t think my boss [County Executive John Olszewski Jr.] or the County Council has any inclination to shove something down the community’s throat that they don’t want,” he said.

Emboldened by Sidh’s public candor, Sines then said the dollar amount for the community benefit “just went up significantly,” directing his statement to Aaron Tomarchio, TPA’s executive vice president of corporate affairs, who was in attendance.

HMI as it exists today was formed beginning in 1981 when a dike joining Hart and Miller islands was constructed and the impoundment filled with dredge material from Baltimore Harbor shipping channels. But state law ordered the facility closed at the end of 2009, leaving about 9 million cubic yards of capacity unused.

Then, TPA proposed earlier this year to reopen the island to accept about 4.2 million cubic yards of dredge material resulting from deepening of its shipping basin as part of its Sparrows Point Container Terminal (SPCT) project on Coke Point. The plan, they said, would save them money over other dredge material disposal options and allow them to open their port facility as much as two years sooner.

In return, TPA said they would pass their cost savings on to the impacted communities by providing a sizable sum of money as a community benefit for allowing the project.

The state legislature subsequently passed legislation opening the door for the project provided a CBA is finalized and approved by the Baltimore County Council by Dec. 31, 2024.

The CBA steering committee has met four times since Aug. 7, and in that time they have agreed on things like what percentage of the community benefit funds should go to mainland communities in the vicinity versus the island itself, who would oversee disbursal of the funds, some criteria for projects that could be considered for funding with community benefit monies and a payment schedule for TPA to deliver the funds.

But one key piece they have not yet settled on is the total sum of money that the CBA will require from TPA in order for the project to move forward. In fact, the steering committee voted at its most recent meeting to table discussion of the dollar amount so they can gather more information on how much money might actually be available before either accepting the company’s offer or making a counter offer.

“I think that the committee and the citizens that are involved with this would like some verification as to how this figure was arrived at,” committee member Francis Taylor told The Peake. “We’ve made that known to [TPA] and they have come back to us and said there are some things they won’t share and some things they will share. So we’re kind of in negotiations on that right now.”

Tomarchio, the TPA executive, explained at the meeting that the company made their offer based on what they calculated would be their savings by placing the dredge material at HMI versus other disposal options.

“You take just the raw math on the use of the [Maryland Port Administration] facility and their tipping fees, times 4.2 million cubic yards, and you get about $100 million there,” he said.

He added that they have estimated their total placement costs for the material at HMI to be $50 million, plus $40 million for the community benefit.

Tomarchio did not give a clear indication of what the cost of the other disposal options would be other than to say they are “very similar costs” to what they are budgeting for deposition at HMI. Although, when pressed by the committee he said constructing their own dredge material containment facility around Coke Point by extending the shoreline there would cost between $100 million – $115 million, stressing that “those numbers are still very fluid.”

“But we’re looking at Hart-Miller Island as a facility that could ensure the execution of the project,” he continued. “The other options, while they may also be [more expensive], they have a lot of risk to them. This has a lot less risk to it.”

Committee member Scott Pappas used Tomarchio’s statement to justify asking for double what TPA offered.

“[HMI is] going to ensure that this project will finish. The other avenue has considerable risk,” he said. “So if we get $80 million, that’s kind of like supply and demand. We’re going to supply you with our support in lieu of $80 million so that we can get benefits for our communities.”

Pappas furthered his argument by pointing to a recent market report for the SPCT which noted it could generate $1.5 billion annually for Maryland’s economy as well as hundreds of millions for the company itself and its employees.

Keith Taylor, an Edgemere resident who spoke during the meeting, said he supported Pappas’ dollar figure along with 1 percent of the annual profits from the SPCT as the community benefit.

“Tradepoint Atlantic, if you grow, we grow,” he said. “If the port brings in $40 million, we get 1 percent of that. And that will take care of all the other projects that are going to go in that are going to start decaying.”

Paul Brylske, another committee member, told The Peake that TPA officials “drew a line in the sand” at $40 million for the CBA dollar amount at a meeting the following night.

However, he said he was undeterred in seeking that $50 million go toward HMI itself through the CBA to fund several initiatives such as a nature center and an endowment to fund other projects. And since the steering committee agreed that 50 percent of the CBA funds should go to the island, he wants the total amount to be adjusted accordingly.

“It should be $100 million,” he said. “Because that’s the only way that the Friends [of Hart-Miller Island] can get $50 million.”

Brylske said he would also like to know more about how TPA arrived at their offer amount.

“But my stand is I don’t care how they came up with the formula; the community deserves it,” he continued. “I’m only one of nine votes, but I’m taking a hard stand of $100 million.”

Others in the community, though, are less comfortable with allowing new dredge material at HMI no matter how much money is on the table.

Joe Corcoran, president of the Baltimore Bird Club (BBC), said his group has expressed reservations about the dredge placement project because of the impact it could have on the birds that use the island as a nesting ground or a crucial stopover habitat during long migrations.

He noted there are tens of thousands of birds that use HMI, some of which are rare species. And their habitat on the island could be impacted for up to 20 years while the state works to dry out the dredge material slurry before developing the area into a new section of the state park.

Corcoran said, though, that there may be ways to carry out placing the dredge material while still protecting the existing bird habitat, such as depositing the material without being mixed with so much water. As a result, the material would dry out more quickly and could be localized in its placement rather than simply flooding the entire North Cell of the island.

“It would take a lot less time for it to dewater, decant and to be usable to be able to develop the area into a park,” he said. “We’d like to proceed in that manner.”

Others like Fort Howard resident Russell Donnelly and Back River Neck Peninsula Community Association President Doug Celmer are unsure that any new dredge placement at HMI is a good idea.

Celmer noted that Back River and Middle River, which sandwich his community, are the closest waterways to the island and will be most impacted if any leaks of the material were to occur.

“We’re going to be the ones who suffer the most when – if – that happens. We’re at ground zero,” he said.

Donnelly said he worries that opening public land for disposal of industrial material would set a precedent, not just for state parks, but for local and national ones as well.

“This would be the first time that a state or federal park, in the history of the United States, would ever be used for the deposition of third-party industrial waste,” he said. “That’s a big issue.”

Sidh, recognizing that the steering committee will need at least another meeting to complete its work, said another would likely be scheduled in two weeks.

The county is also scheduled to hold a “focus group” meeting for individuals who were interested in serving on the committee but were not selected, as well as a final public input meeting before the committee’s CBA recommendations are finalized.

Details of those three meetings were not yet available on the county’s website, but Sidh said they will be posted “as soon as possible” to give the public notice.