Maryland sues power company over pollution

The lawsuit was filed Thursday in Charles County Circuit Court against subsidiaries of Mirant Corp. over fly ash generated by Mirant's coal-fired Morgantown power plant.

According to the lawsuit, the fly ash left over from burning coal is dumped at a 180-acre site in nearby Faulkner. About 6 million cubic yards has been dumped at the site.

There are measures to keep chemicals from leaching out of the storage areas, but the state says levels of substances like cadmium and aluminum that violate state limits have made it into nearby waterways that feed the Zekiah Swamp.

The state says the substances could harm what is "one of the most significant ecological areas in the Chesapeake Bay watershed."

The lawsuit seeks to halt the dumping of coal ash at the site until the company can prove that it can contain the pollutants. It asks the court to require Mirant to stop its alleged pollution discharges and to require the company to test area water. For ongoing violations, the state seeks fines that could reach $10,000 per day for each violation.

A spokeswoman for Atlanta-based Mirant did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

Ash from burning coal has been an issue elsewhere in the state. In Anne Arundel County, residents last year filed a class action lawsuit alleging that Constellation Power Source Generation concealed knowledge that coal ash from a dump site in Gambrills was contaminating groundwater there in 2006.

Under a consent decree reached last year, Constellation paid a $1 million penalty and agreed to clean groundwater in the area.

Fly ash contamination has become a major concern in Anne Arundel, with Republican County Executive John Leopold calling for a ban. Leopold has criticized Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley for vetoing a bill this spring to use state money to monitor Anne Arundel wells for fly ash contamination.