Judge Approves Sparrows Point Monitoring Agreement

BALTIMORE (AP) -- The Chesapeake Bay Foundation says it hasn't decided whether to appeal a federal judge's approval of an agreement between the owners of the Sparrows Point steel plant and environmental regulators over monitoring of the site for toxic contaminants.

U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz approved the agreement last week between RG Steel and federal and state regulators. The agreement ends a lengthy dispute over monitoring at the mill outside Baltimore. Under the agreement, the company is required to sample sediments no more than 50 feet offshore. Environmentalists have argued contaminants have been found much further offshore.

The judge ruled last year a prior owner wasn't responsible for pollution before Bethlehem Steel's 2003 bankruptcy sale of the mill, but current owners could be required to study offshore pollution.

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