Restoration work could begin next week on a Cecil County trout stream that was damaged when a sediment holding pond on a nearby hazardous waste site failed, state officials said yesterday.
In the wake of the December accident, sediment clogged an unnamed stream that flows into Basin Run, downhill from the Woodlawn County Landfill, a federal Superfund site. The stream is the Basin Run watershed's main trout-spawning area, say biologists from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
The Environmental Protection Agency blamed the accident on an improperly installed pipe carrying excess water from the pond into the stream. The pipe leaked, undermining the 20-foot berm around the pond until it collapsed, agency officials said.
State experts want to use a portable dredge to pump the sediment from the stream bottom. The EPA and Bridgestone/Firestone Inc., the company paying for the Superfund cleanup, have tentatively agreed to start next week, though the cost of the work is unknown, said Rick Grills, chief of state Department of the Environment's Superfund section.
Once the sediment is gone, biologists hope trout will return to spawn in a few years, Grills said.
"We're trying to do some good things. We just caught a bad break," said Anthony Iacobone, EPA project manager for the site.