Annapolis consultants find limited contamination at Spa Road; city to pursue $4M EPA brownfield grant as transfer debate continues

Annapolis officials heard a Phase 2 environmental site assessment on July 23 for the Spa Road property and were told the contamination is manageable and consistent with long‑running industrial and public‑works uses. Dan Hoadley, principal with Haley & Aldrich, told a joint session of the Environmental Matters and Rules & Government committees that the report found elevated metals and some semi‑volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) typically linked to oil and grease from vehicle maintenance, but no evidence of free product, chlorinated solvent sources, or concentrations that would qualify as hazardous waste for disposal.

The finding matters because the city and the Resilience Authority plan to use the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) voluntary cleanup program and to apply for up to $4 million from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Brownfields Grant Program to cover remedial costs tied to redevelopment. “At the end of it, you’ve removed all potential human‑health and ecological risk from reuse of the site,” Hoadley said, describing the voluntary cleanup program’s objective of documenting characterizations and implementing a remedial action plan that eliminates exposure pathways.

Why it matters: Spa Road is a large parcel under consideration for a Choice Neighborhood‑type redevelopment (CNI) that would combine recreational space, housing and civic uses and includes Weems Whalen Field. Remediation strategy, cost and timing will affect whether parts of the site are redeveloped by the Housing Authority, private developers or reclaimed for municipal use.

What the Phase 2 found - The Phase 2 included soil borings (the consultant described “approximately 28–30 borings” in the transcript), permanent groundwater monitoring wells, and sediment and surface‑water sampling in the Spa Creek headwaters along the southern property boundary. - Results showed a distribution of elevated metals (including areas with marginal exceedances of MDE residential cleanup standards) and SVOCs…