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 consistent with historical incinerator ash and long‑running public‑works vehicle maintenance. Groundwater samples showed some metal detections (manganese was noted) but filtered samples indicated little to no dissolved concentrations. No dioxins, furans or PCBs were detected in the Phase 2. - Hoadley said the findings do not indicate a point source with large gradients (a common signal of acute contamination) and described concentrations as “marginal” and “within an order of magnitude” of cleanup levels for many compounds.

Next technical steps and remedial options - MDE has reviewed the Phase 2 and requested no major additional sampling; the city must correct a mismatch in the parcel legal description recorded in SDAT before MDE will finalize program entry. - The consultant recommended a screening‑level ecological risk assessment (SLERA) for sediment and surface water (estimated in the presentation at about $30,000) so the team can quantify any risk to ecological receptors and document the finding for MDE. - Remedial approaches described include engineered caps (including turf fields, parking lots or building footprints as caps), soil management plans during construction, limited targeted excavation if required, and passive vapor barriers under occupied buildings. Hoadley emphasized that many reuse scenarios — recreation, commercial, residential — can be addressed by integrating capping and soil management into the development design.

Costs and grant strategy - The Resilience Authority said it intends to file an EPA brownfields grant application for the maximum $4,000,000 available in the current funding cycle; consultants said that amount commonly covers soil disposal, capping and capital costs tied to initial redevelopment. Hoadley said preliminary cost estimates for remediation (including Weems Whalen Field) ranged roughly between $3 million and $6 million in early, conceptual planning; he said removing below‑grade parking or large volumes of soil would increase costs and that his team did not include significant below‑grade parking in those early estimates. - Typical off‑site nonhazardous soil disposal costs cited in the presentation were roughly $100–$130 per ton; consultant and staff stressed that nothing in the Phase 2 indicated soils that would require hazardous‑waste disposal (a substantially higher disposal cost). - Grant timeline given in the presentation: EPA issues a Notice of Funding Opportunity in September; applications due in mid‑November; awards announced roughly the following May; funds could be available in October 2026 if awarded. That schedule was cited repeatedly as a reason for time‑sensitive steps now.

Ownership, transfer and timing concerns raised by council members - Staff and the Resilience Authority described a plan in which the city would transfer the Spa Road parcel (with Weems Whalen Field carved out as a separate parcel) to the Resilience Authority to make the property eligible for EPA brownfields funds. Presenters said the city is the responsible party for historical landfill/incinerator uses, and EPA brownfields grants are typically awarded to non‑responsible parties; transferring ownership to the Resilience Authority is intended to meet EPA eligibility rules. - City staff and the resilience director warned that the ordinance authorizing the transfer and a recorded deed must be completed in time to make the grant application. Assistant City Attorney Ashley Leonard said deed recording requires additional county and land‑records steps that can take weeks after a signed deed is submitted. Theresa Sutherland, treasurer of the Resilience Authority, told the committee the schedule meant the council would need to pass ordinance language in time to allow recording before the grant application deadline: “the October 27 council meeting is the latest the council could pass the ordinance on third reader,” she said, adding that amendments that change terms of conveyance would need to be resolved earlier so second‑reader action could occur in September.

Council debate and next steps - Several aldermen said they supported seeking grant funding but pressed staff and the Resilience Authority on three issues: (1) more time to review ordinance amendments and legal terms; (2) confirmation of the MDE concurrence and the SDAT parcel correction; and (3) alignment of remediation scope with likely redevelopment footprints (to avoid paying to excavate soil that later would be re‑excavated). - Housing Authority representatives said they have concept plans, committed local funds and developer interest and urged coordination so remediation and redevelopment can proceed in phases rather than sequentially.

Administrative actions recorded during the meeting - The joint committee recessed Environmental Matters and Rules & Government to reconvene on Friday at 1:00 p.m. to continue ordinance and amendment review.

Why this is still unfolding - Key dependencies remain procedural (correct legal parcel descriptions in SDAT; recorded deed) and programmatic (consultant completion of SLERA if needed; final remedial action plan tied to an agreed development program). Staff said MDE has reviewed the Phase 2 report and raised no major technical data gaps, but final program entry into the voluntary cleanup program awaits the parcel description correction and completion of any ecological screening MDE requires.

What to watch for next - The Resilience Authority’s EPA brownfields application (NOFO in September; application due mid‑November), the city’s SDAT correction and recorded deed, the SLERA outcome for sediment/surface water, and any final remedial action plan that will show how capping, soil management and building footprints will be integrated into redevelopment.

Ending: The meeting closed with members agreeing to continue deliberations at a reconvened committee session; staff and Resilience Authority representatives said they will proceed with grant planning and MDE coordination while councilors review ordinance language and amendments.