Legislation is needed to ensure that proposed new gas pipelines are fully reviewed by the Maryland Department of the Environment to guard against harm to our drinking water and sensitive waterways.
While the federal government has the initial say-so on the construction of interstate gas pipelines, Maryland is authorized by the federal Clean Water Act to decide whether to grant a permit for gas pipelines which travel through our State. This bill will require the Maryland Department of the Environment to properly use this permitting authority, including relying on appropriate clean-water standards and public input.
After a long fight, we won a major victory in 2017 when the General Assembly banned fracking in Maryland. Still, gas pipelines and related infrastructure can bring fracked gas from neighboring states through Maryland. These pipelines create an immediate risk of environmental destruction, such as through leakage which damages drinking water and sensitive waterways. Methane release from gas infrastructure also heightens the risk of runaway climate change, with increasingly destructive storms, floods, heat waves, and sea level rise which threaten Maryland’s economy, public health, and natural environment.
In 2018, the Maryland Department of the Environment gave the go-ahead to the construction of a fracked-gas pipeline underneath the Potomac River, risking the drinking water of over six million people. In doing this, the agency failed to properly use its authority under Clean Water Act to certify that the pipeline will not harm water quality. Another new, very lengthy gas pipeline is now proposed to be built on the Eastern Shore.
We need our State to conduct full Clean Water Act reviews for proposed gas pipelines. This legislation will ensure that this occurs.