Group files legal action against vinegar company
Environmental nonprofit Blue Water Baltimore has filed a notice of intent to sue Fleischmann’s Vinegar Co. in Baltimore, alleging that the company has repeatedly polluted the Jones Falls.
The vinegar plant, located along the Patapsco River tributary in Coldspring, has released acidic discharges into the stream on several occasions, according to the nonprofit. Those releases are believed to have caused fish kills in the stream — including in September 2021 and late last year.
Under the federal Clean Water Act, citizen groups must give 60 days of notice before filing a lawsuit related to pollution. Tuesday’s filing begins that process.
“This action puts the power of enforcement in the hands of the people,” said Alice Volpitta, Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper with Blue Water Baltimore, said in a news release. “Local residents first alerted us to these problems, and we gathered the data to back up those observations. Now, we are exercising our rights under the Clean Water Act.”
In its notice, Blue Water also alleges that Fleischmann’s was discharging polluted water from several other places beyond its main pipe, in violation of its environmental permit.
The nonprofit observed leaks from a concrete wall at the facility into the Jones Falls, and discharges from a corroded pipe believed to be connected to a storm drain. Some of the discharges have been confirmed by Maryland Department of the Environment inspectors over the past year and a half.
A spokesperson for Fleischmann’s Vinegar acknowledged the receipt of the notice Tuesday from Blue Water Baltimore.
“Fleischmann’s Vinegar
Company takes its environmental responsibilities extremely seriously and has been working closely with the Maryland Department of Environmental Protection [sic] and the City of Baltimore to ensure that the site in Baltimore remains compliant with the Clean Water Act,” the spokesperson said. “The company is reviewing the allegations and is not in a position to comment further at this time.”
Blue Water is represented in its case by the Chesapeake Legal Alliance, which provides free legal services to environmental groups.
Angela Haren, a senior attorney for the alliance, said that the groups decided to take action “with the goal of bringing the facility back into compliance as soon as possible.”
The Chesapeake Legal Alliance is also representing Blue Water in its case against Baltimore City for its wastewater treatment failures, and its legal challenge of the state’s general industrial stormwater permit. The two nonprofits also are working together on legal challenges to stormwater permits issued to Baltimore City and Baltimore County.
The Maryland Department of the Environment
inspected the Fleischmann’s facility repeatedly in 2021 and 2022, starting after the initial complaint of a fish kill in September 2021, according to the agency’s online inspection records.
That’s when the agency discovered the plant was releasing low pH water into the Jones Falls from a storm drain that state officials didn’t know the plant had been connected to.
In more recent inspection reports, the discharge from that location appeared to have ebbed. But a November inspection report found the facility was still out of compliance with its environmental permit.
The water flowing from its main release point into the Jones Falls was acidic, with readings of 3.74 and 4.11. Normal drinking water has a pH of about 7.
That inspection was triggered by complaints from Blue Water Baltimore about fish found dead in the Jones Falls near the plant. An inspector from MDE was unable to reach the location in the stream due to the terrain, inspection reports showed. The inspector was also unable to verify Blue Water’s contention that an unauthorized discharge of acid was pouring from the facility’s wall.