Urban and rural legislators have joined forces to introduce House Joint Resolution 8 (HJ8) that will hold the Exelon Generation Company, LLC, financially responsible for the costs to clean up pollution discharging from Conowingo Dam sufficiently to meet state water quality standards, as well as at least 25 percent of the costs associated with the Dam’s Watershed Implementation Plan (WIP). Exelon owns and operates the dam, located on the lower Susquehanna River in Maryland, approximately 10 miles north of where the river meets the Chesapeake Bay.

Send an email today to let the Maryland General Assembly know that this resolution is the right thing to do. We have only one opportunity in this lifetime to get the Conowingo Dam cleanup right!

Exelon’s current license for the Conowingo Dam expired in 2014, and it is seeking a new 50-year license from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Before FERC grants a new license, the State of Maryland is required, under section 401 of the federal Clean Water Act, to certify that the project will meet state water quality standards.

This bipartisan legislation presents a common-sense solution to reducing the sediment pollution stored behind the Conowingo Dam. The burden for cleaning up pollution behind the Conowingo Dam should not fall solely on Maryland taxpayers. Exelon is a multi-million-dollar corporation and should pay its fair share of the total cleanup costs.

The General Assembly should support this resolution to sustain the upkeep of the dam and protect clean water. It is imperative to get Exelon on the hook for at least a portion of the cleanup costs to ensure the success of the Chesapeake Bay cleanup effort.

Send an email today urging the passage of House Joint Resolution 8 (HJ8) asking Exelon to pay their fair share!

Since its construction in 1928, Conowingo Dam has trapped polluted sediment from the Susquehanna River and its 27,000-square-mile drainage area. The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) has concluded that the dam’s reservoir is now at capacity and studies estimate that there are nearly 200 million tons of sediment, nutrients and other pollutants trapped behind the dam. During major floods caused by large storms, powerful floodwaters can scoop out or “scour” the stored sediment pollution behind the dam and send that downstream to the Chesapeake Bay.

The dam is critically important to the health and ecology – and ultimately the cleanup – of the Chesapeake Bay.

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