9814 Kensington Parkway

Kensington, Maryland 20895

13 August 2015
Water Management Administration
Maryland Department of the Environment
Baltimore, Maryland
Via email:
jesse.salter@maryland.gov
mde.constructionswnoi@maryland.gov

re: Objection to NOI for Plan ID Number 273455, Reference Number MDRCP01VU
To Whom It May Concern:
I hereby object to the request by Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) to begin construction of a new middle
school on the site of Rock Creek Hills Local Park (RCHLP) under conditions of the General Permit for Stormwater
Associated with Construction Activity, and I ask the Department of the Environment to require MCPS to obtain an
Individual Permit.
Part III.3 of the General Permit states: Discharges of stormwater with known contamination by pollutants other
than sediment are not authorized under this permit. The following discharges are also prohibited: Fuels, oils, or
other pollutants used in vehicle and equipment operation
MCPS proposes to direct all stormwater from the project site through a large diameter pipe and diffuser system,
across the narrow stream buffer area and directly into Silver Creek. Both during the construction period, and during
daily operation of the school afterwards, stormwater would wash sediment and toxic pollutants into Silver Creek,
then into Rock Creek, and ultimately, into Chesapeake Bay.
Burning fossil fuels in vehicle engines (and in power plants) produces polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), a
class of toxic organic compounds known to cause cancer. PAHs and their metabolites are known to be highly toxic
at very, very low concentrations to a variety of both freshwater and marine fish and invertebrates, and their toxic
effects can be passed on to higher trophic level predators. Effects on benthic invertebrates include inhibited
reproduction, delayed emergence, sediment avoidance, and mortality. Fish exposed to PAH contamination have
exhibited liver abnormalities and tumors, cataracts, and immune system impairments leading to increased
susceptibility to disease. Even in small doses (parts per million), PAHs are drawn like magnets to fish embryos,
and the hydrocarbons that researchers worry about most are cardiac poisons - they disrupt the ability of developing
hearts to pump properly. Recent research has shown that street runoff, in particular, is even lethally toxic to
returning adult salmon. (References listed below)
PAHs and other toxic contaminants including heavy metals that are deposited from vehicle exhausts will be
transported in the stormwater flowing off the driveways and parking areas to be used by many school busses,
delivery trucks, and cars (parents and staff) on a daily basis. Much of the PAH-containing stormwater will be routed
into the planned stormwater system. After passing through retention ponds, PAHs will be discharged into Silver
Creek 75 feet below the schools athletic fields. Additionally, PAHs will be washed off the schools steep main
driveway (8% grade) directly onto Saul Road, from where they will also find their way into Silver Creek. The total
amount of such toxicants will be much greater than now, because of the very large increase in vehicle traffic
associated with such a large (1,200 student population) school.
The proposed construction would eliminate all the old growth forest covering almost one third of the ten-acre
building site (many hundred year old class trees, some over 165 years old), eliminating this mature forests
importance to wildlife. Polluted stormwater from the site would effectively also destroy the habitat value of lower
Silver Creek from at least Saul Road, to its confluence with Rock Creek, one half mile downstream. Both Silver
Creek and Rock Creek are Waters of the United States and are thus protected under authority of the federal
Clean Water Act. The two primary threats to these streams are: (1) Filling lower Silver Creek with sediment washed
off the construction site with every rainstorm for the next two years (turning Silver Creek into a muddy ditch all the
way to Rock Creek) and (2) Continuous loading of Silver Creek with toxic hydrocarbons washed from the schools
driveways and parking areas.

As old-growth forest and other vegetation is removed for construction, rain will wash fine grained material off the
sites steep slopes on three sides, the steepest being a drop of some 65 feet to the outfall. As it does now,
stormwater will flow from the site, down and across Saul Road, and into Silver Creek. Silver Creek will become
choked with silt, eliminating its wildlife habitat value.
Today, Silver Creek is a natural, winding stream characterized by a series of rocky riffles and pools, clear flowing
water with large trees shading most of its length. Riparian (streamside) forest is a haven for high quality wildlife, in
addition to the wildlife normally found in residential neighborhoods. The high quality of the riparian habitat along
Silver Creek is seen in the high quality wildlife it supports: yellow crowned night heron, little green heron, great blue
heron, wood duck, mallard duck, kingfisher, goldfinch, blue-gray gnat catcher, grackle, pileated woodpecker, downy
woodpecker, hairy woodpecker, great horned owl, barred owl, red tailed hawk, red shouldered hawk, sharp shinned
hawk, red fox, coyote, deer, raccoon, water snakes (Natrix spp.), beaver, and even nesting snapping turtle. This
quality assemblage of wildlife exists here because of the mature forest with many very large trees, and the fact that
Silver Creek is connected upstream and downstream to similar quality riparian forest, including that of Rock Creek,
which provides a continuous corridor for wildlife that extends downstream to the Potomac River in Georgetown, and
upstream to Rock Creeks headwaters.
Will the various retention ponds to be positioned around the school grounds become breeding grounds for
mosquitoes? If so, will the solution be to apply pesticides, which will eventually be routed into Silver Creek with the
stormwater? That would also be toxic to most fish and invertebrates in the stream.
Toxic contaminants will have serious adverse effects on aquatic life in and around Silver Creek and Rock Creek.
And the damage will not stop at the waters edge. These streams support a large number of terrestrial and avian
predators (and other wildlife) that require access to clean water and who feed on the streams aquatic life. Thus
toxic hydrocarbons will indiscriminately contaminate all levels of the food chain, from the lowest invertebrates to the
top predators. Once school opens however, the sediments in the Creek bottoms will also become laced with some
of the worlds most toxic chemical compounds. Nothing can live it that. And these contaminants will continue to kill
for years to come as additional polluted stormwater continues to flow off the schools grounds and becomes
incorporated through adhesion to fine grained particles and organic matter in the Creeks muddy bottoms. In the
same way, contaminants entering Silver Creek will also find their way downstream and adversely affect the water
quality and wildlife of Rock Creek as it flows toward the National Park.
In conclusion, MCPSs application to use the General Permit for Stormwater Associated with Construction Activity
for this project is clearly inappropriate, given the sites location and its discharge of pollutants directly into Silver
Creek, whose water quality is protected under authority of the federal Clean Water Act. Accordingly, the
Department of the Environment should reject MCPSs application to use the General Permit, and instead require
MCPS to obtain an Individual Permit. That Individual Permit application should include an environmental
assessment of the projects ecological effects, and a comparably detailed analysis of less damaging alternatives
(including the Recommended Alternate Site designated by MCPSs Site Selection Advisory Committee), to allow
full opportunity for public and agency review and comment.
Sincerely yours,
/S/
James R. Chambers
Cc:
President, Montgomery County Board of Education
COO, Montgomery County Public Schools
Chair, Montgomery County Planning Board
Enclosure: References

References
PAHs in Stormwater Runoff
Hwang H-M, Foster GD. 2006. Characterization of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in urban stormwater runoff flowing into the
tidal Anacostia River, Washington, DC, USA, Environmental Pollution, Volume 140, Issue 3, April 2006, Pages 416-426.
Menzie CA, Hoeppner SS, Cura JJ, Freshma JS and LaFrey EN. 2002. Urban and Suburban Storm Water Runoff as a Source of
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) to Massachusetts Estuarine and Coastal Environments. Estuaries, Vol. 25, No. 2
(Apr., 2002) , pp. 165-176. Published by: Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation
Prabhukumar G and Pagilla K. 2010. Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Urban Runoff Sources, Sinks and Treatment: A
Review. Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL
Bioeffects of PAHs
Bender ME, Hargis WJ Jr, Huggett RJ, Roberts MH Jr. 1988. Effects of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons on fishes and shellfish:
an overview of research in Virginia. Mar Environ Res 24(14):237241.
Burgess RM. 2010. Evaluating Ecological Risk to Invertebrate Receptors from PAHs in Sediments at Hazardous Waste Sites. Nat
Health and Env Effects Res Lab, EPA.
Eisler, R. 1987. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon hazards to fish, wildlife, and invertebrates: a synoptic review. U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service Biological Report 85(1.11).
Johnson L. 2000. An analysis in support of sediment quality thresholds for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) to protect
estuarine fish. Env Conserv Div NOAA/NMFS.
Malins DC, McCain BB, Landahl JT, Myers MS, Krahn MM, Brown DW, et al. 1988. Neoplastic and other diseases in fish in
relation to toxic chemicals: an overview. Aquat Toxicol 11(12):4367.
Meyer JN, Nacci DE, Di Giulio RT. 2002. Cytochrome P4501A (CYP1A) in killifish (Fundulus heteroclitus): heritability of altered
expression and relationship to survival in contaminated sediments. Toxicol Sci 68(1):6981.
Myers MS, Johnson LL, and Collier TK. 2003. Establishing the causal relationship between polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon
(PAH) exposure and hepatic neoplasms and neoplasia-related liver lesions in English sole (Pleuronectes vetulus). Human and
Ecological Risk Assessment 9:6794.
Myers MS, Rhodes LD, and McCain BB. 1987. Pathologic anatomy and patterns of occurrence of hepatic neoplasms, putative
preneoplastic lesions and other idiopathic hepatic conditions in English sole (Parophrys vetulus) from Puget Sound, Washington.
Journal of the National Cancer Institute 78(2):333363.
Myers MS, Stehr CM, Olson OP, Johnson LL, McCain BB, Chan S, and Varanasi U. 1994. Relationships between toxicopathic
hepatic lesions and exposure to chemical contaminants in English sole (Pleuronectes vetulus), starry flounder (Platichthys
stellatus), and white croaker (Genyonemus lineatus) from selected marine sites on the Pacific Coast, USA. Environmental
Health Perspectives 102:200 215.
Myers MS, Landahl JT, Krahn MM, Johnson LL, McCain BB. 1990. Overview of studies on liver carcinogenesis in English sole
from Puget Sound; evidence of a xenobiotic chemical etiology I: pathology and epizootiology. Sci Total Environ 94(12):3350.
Myers MS, Olson OP, Johnson LL, Stehr CS, Hom T, and Varanasi U. 1992. Hepatic lesions other than neoplasms in subadult
flatfish from Puget Sound, Washington: Relationships with indices of contaminant exposure. Marine Environmental Research
34:4551.
Myers MS, Johnson LL, Olson OP, Stehr CM, Horness BH, Collier TK, and McCain BB. 1998. Toxicopathic hepatic lesions as
biomarkers of chemical contaminant exposure and effects in marine bottomfish species from the Northeast and Pacific Coasts,
USA. Marine Pollution Bulletin 37:92113.
Nagpal NK. 1993. Ambient Water Quality Criteria For Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) Ministry of Environment, Lands
and Parks Province of British Columbia.
Pinkney AE, Harshbarger JC, May EB, and Melancon MJ. 2001. Tumor prevalence and biomarkers of exposure in brown
bullheads (Ameiurus nebulosus) from the tidal Potomac River, USA, watershed. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry
20(6):11961205.
Pinkney AE, Harshbarger JC, May EB, and Reichert WL. 2004. Tumor prevalence and biomarkers of exposure and response in
brown bullhead (Ameiurus nebulosus) from the Anacostia River, Washington, DC and Tuckahoe River, Maryland, USA.
Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 23:638647.
Pinkney AE, Harshbarger JC, and Rutter MA. 2009. Tumors in brown bullheads in the Chesapeake Bay watershed: Analysis of
survey data from 1992 through 2006. Journal Aquatic Animal Health 21:7181.
Schiewe MH, Weber DB, Myers S, Jacques FJ, Reichert WL, Krone CA, Malins DC, McCain BB, Chan S-L, and Varanasi U.
1991. Induction of foci of cellular alteration and other hepatic lesions in English sole (Parophrys vetulus) exposed to an extract of
an urban marine sediment. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 48(9):17501760.
Scholz NL, Myers MS, McCarthy SG, et al.2011. Recurrent Die-Offs of Adult Coho Salmon Returning to Spawn in Puget Sound
Lowland Urban Streams. Browman H, ed. PLoS ONE. 2011;6(12):e28013.
Varanasi U. 1989. Metabolism of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in the Aquatic Environment. CRC Press. 352 pp.
Willis LP, Jung D, Koehrn K, Zhu S, Willett K, Hinton DE, Di Giulio RT. 2010. Comparative Chronic Liver Toxicity of
Benzo[a]pyrene in Two Populations of the Atlantic Killifish (Fundulus heteroclitus) with Different Exposure Histories. Env Health
Persp 118(10): 1376-1381.
Yanagida GK, Anulacion BF, Bolton JL, Boyd D, Lomax DP, Olson OP, Sol S, Willis MJ, Ylitalo GM, Johnson LL. 2012. Polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons and risk to threatened and endangered Chinook salmon in the Lower Columbia River estuary. Archives
of Envir Contam and Toxicol. 62(2):282-295.