By Kennedy Maize
After more than a decade of wrangling, a $340 million plan to resolve water quality issues at Constellation Energy’s century-old Conowingo hydroelectric dam may be headed to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a new license. But it’s not a sure thing.
At an Aug. 13 Ocean City meeting of the Maryland Association of Counties, leaders in rural Maryland counties, state officials, and dam owner Constellation Energy came to an agreement on how to move forward with an earlier deal that has been stymied since January. The Baltimore Sun reported, “Constellation will pay $340 million for various environmental projects over the next several decades, in exchange for a crucial water quality certification from the state.”
Rural interests, mostly Republicans in a Democratic state, have long been concerned about sediment and nutrient flows from the dam polluting the Chesapeake Bay, a threat to the region’s most important natural feature. The state government is in control by Democrats, and they agreed to a water quality plan that satisfied the rural interests.
The 548-MW dam on the Susquehanna River some 50 miles north of Baltimore and just over the Pennsylvania line, has been in service since 1928, damming up the main source of water for the vast Chesapeake Bay, generating electricity and providing flood control. As it trapped river water, it created a 14-mile reservoir, supplying drinking water to Baltimore and cooling water to the Peach Bottom nuclear plant, along with recreation.
The dam also trapped sediment and polluting nutrients from reaching the bay for decades, and there’s the modern rub. A 2012 U.S. Geological Survey study found that the Conowingo reservoir “had begun to lose its phosphorus and sediment-trapping ability, with increasing amounts going into the Bay.”
In 2015, USGS, part of the U.S. Department of the Interior, found that “Conowingo Dam on the Susquehanna River is at about 92 percent capacity for sediment storage…Storage capacity in Conowingo Reservoir continues to decrease, and ultimately that means more nutrients and sediment will flow into the Bay, says Mike Langland, a USGS scientist and author of the study.”
In 2018, when Republican Larry Hogan was governor, Maryland issued a clean water permit requiring Constellation to cut the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus from the dam, along with improved fish passage, and other steps. Constellation objected and the state regulators came up with a compromise plan, which they submitted to FERC. The commission issued a 50-year license. That deal committed Constellation to spend $230 million on changes to the dam.
Two local environemntal groups focused on the bay sued in federal court in 2021. In December 2022, a three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled in favor of the groups. The court said that when Maryland approved the permit in 2018, that was a final action and the state couldn’t then turn around and change its mind.
The parties went back to the start, working over the next three years to come up with an acceptable approach. Last October, the parties announced the $340 million settlement. Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, said the agreement “will lead to real improvements in water quality in the biggest tributary of the Chesapeake Bay while securing the future of one of our state’s largest clean energy producers … By bringing everyone to the table, we have struck an agreement that is good for the environment, good for energy production and good for Marylanders.”
Joe Dominguez, Constellation’s president, said that “it shouldn’t have taken us 10 years to sort through all of the issues here, and that’s a bit disappointing.” But, he added, “the resolution to those permitting issues often requires people coming together that have different interests … and making something good happen.”
The October deal led four Eastern Shore counties to announce their opposition, challenging the state’s water certification. That quickly evaporated. By this January, all four had backed off. The Baltimore Banner, the state’s online daily, reported, “Maryland Department of the Environment officials toured the Eastern Shore in recent weeks to lobby the four counties, all Republican-led, to reconsider their position, Their effort paid off.”
The Banner commented, “The withdrawal comes as a relief to Maryland leaders, who had argued that the Eastern Shore-based group’s challenge threatened to delay — or even upend — a windfall of environmental funds for the state and the long-sought relicensing of Conowingo, Maryland’s largest source of renewable power.
The agreement in Maryland is not the end of the Conowingo saga. That’s up to the feds. FERC has no deadlines on reviewing hydro license renewal. In the meantime, Constellation will continue operating the dam under temporary, one-year licenses.
The Quad Report, covering energy policy and politics
