No grass, no crabs”: Maryland community grapples with Gunpowder River mud pollution

JOPPA, Md. – Beneath an overcast October sky, Theaux Le Gardeur and two researchers buzzed around the Gunpowder River in a motorboat bearing the name “Gunpowder Riverkeeper.”

Their mission: to measure water quality and find what has been missing from the waterways for over two years.

“Do you see any grass?” asked Le Gardeur, executive director of Gunpowder Riverkeeper, while peering over the side of the boat.

“No grass,” Chichedo Duru replied dejectedly.

Duru, a bioenvironmental science Ph.D. student at Morgan State University, had just dropped a black-and-white Secchi disk into the water. The device, used to measure the depth at which water becomes too murky to see, sank less than a foot before vanishing beneath brown water.

According to a recent survey, submerged aquatic vegetation or underwater grass in the Chesapeake Bay has grown by 7% since 1983, marking one of the best levels in 40 years. By contrast, the Gunpowder River, which flows into the bay, saw a nearly 91% decline in underwater vegetation from 2021 and 2023.

Residents living along the river are blaming D.R. Horton, the biggest home builder in the country, for polluting the Gunpowder River and contributing to the loss of underwater grasses.

Underwater plants are an essential habitat in the Chesapeake Bay. Aquatic grasses, which depend on sunlight to grow, provide food and shelter to fish and crabs, release oxygen, absorb nutrients, and prevent erosion and unwanted algae growth. The presence or absence of grasses is a key indicator of the river’s ecosystem’s health.

The loss of the underwater plants “in the Gunpowder River is of concern and could be linked to a number of contributing factors, including turbidity associated with development projects in the Gunpowder River watershed,” said biologist Brooke Landry. Landry supports the Chesapeake Bay Program’s efforts to monitor the bay’s underwater grasses.

Local concerns surface

Bill Temmink has lived near Mariner Point Park in Joppa for over 50 years and was among the first residents to notice sediment runoff from Foster Branch, a stream flowing into the Gunpowder River. Developers began construction in October 2021 at Ridgely’s Reserve, a housing development in Joppatowne, breaking ground approximately two miles from the river at the stream’s headwaters. By the spring of 2022, nearly 121 acres of forest had been cleared, and it was around this time that Temmink noticed that the river was changing color.

In 2022, Temmink sent the Maryland Department of the Environment and Harford County pictures he took and alleged that the development lacked proper erosion control measures. Following periods of drought, heavy rains rushed down the steep, barren landscape of the new housing development into Foster Branch, flooding sediment into the Gunpowder River and its tributaries, Temmink said in an interview with CNS.

Jack Whisted, a retired tournament fisherman, has lived on the water in Joppatowne for 52 years. “I have never seen a complete disregard of the environment here,” Whisted said in a letter submitted to CNS.

“It has taken reckless innumerous complaints, meetings, letters, field visits and now finally lawsuits,” Whisted said. “This has been a complete failure of the laws of Maryland and irresponsibility of the governing bodies.”

Mad About Mud is a conglomerate of concerned residents from Harford and Baltimore County aiming to eradicate pollution in the Gunpowder River while holding government agencies and D.R. Horton, the developer of the Joppa housing development, accountable.

“The river, at some point this summer, was like gelatinous, which is bizarre. Like, I’ve never seen it actually look like that,” Lindsay Crone, the campaign manager for Mad About Mud, said in an interview with CNS.

Clay flowing down from the development site creates an opaque layer at the water’s surface, blocking sunlight from reaching underwater grasses, Crone said. She added the entire ecosystem is disrupted.

Mad About Mud organizers launched a petition in March to gauge public interest in the issue, collecting over a thousand signatures by October.

According to Harford County Councilmember Dion Guthrie, a Democrat, the increase in mud and the dwindling fish and crab populations have also affected the local economy.

“I used to go here because you’d see so many crab pots, and this year, I’ve hardly seen any,” he said. “They’re not catching anything because of what’s happening with the mud.”

Guthrie said the mud also contributed to the closure of Joppatowne Marina in May, hurting nearby waterfront restaurants.

A call to action

Since 2022, Maryland Department of the Environment and Harford County inspection reports on water quality data revealed 86 failed inspections, issued 10 Stop Work Orders and levied $20,000 in fines on D.R. Horton and its development subsidiary, Forestar Real Estate Group.

On Aug. 7, Gunpowder Riverkeeper sent D.R. Horton and its affiliated parties a letter notifying the developers of the organization’s intent to file a citizen suit under the Clean Water Act to enforce ongoing and continuous alleged violations coming from the construction site at Ridgely’s Reserve.

The suit, which has not yet been filed, would seek a court order to halt pollutant discharges, ensure future compliance with the law, obtain civil penalties and other appropriate relief.

The Maryland attorney general’s office filed a 94-page complaint in Harford County Circuit Court last month against D.R. Horton, Forestar Real Estate Group and a Pennsylvania contractor, Kinsley Construction, on behalf of the Maryland Department of the Environment, citing hundreds of water quality violations.

The complaint requests a penalty of up to $25,000 per violation, with each day of continued violation counted as a separate offense under Maryland law. The complaint also seeks a court order to halt pollutant discharges, enforce permit compliances and restore affected waterways.

“It is past time for this pollution to stop,” Maryland Department of the Environment Secretary Serena Mcllwain said in a statement. “We are asking the court to not only impose a financial penalty, but also require that the affected waterways be restored.”

“Both the secretary and the attorney general are asking for restoration of not just the environment but the community interest,” Le Gardeur said. “They’re saying, ‘Well, we want restitution.’”

If only fines and penalties were imposed, the funds would go into a clean water fund that could be used anywhere, but what the state is asking for is fair for the affected communities, Le Gardeur said.

“Usually entities like this are not held accountable and this stuff happens all over the state of Maryland,” said Patrick DeArmey, a representative from Chesapeake Legal Alliance and legal counsel to the Riverkeeper. “This happens to be an incredibly egregious example of stormwater runoff that is likely killing the submerged aquatic vegetation.”

When asked for comment, Jessica Hansen, D.R. Horton spokeswoman and head of investor relations, said in an email statement: “D.R. Horton is committed to protecting the environment in every community we serve and has been working diligently with Hartford County and the Maryland Department of the Environment to promptly and effectively address any and all concerns at our homesites in Ridgely’s Reserve. We will continue to cooperate with these authorities to ensure our homesites remain stormwater compliant throughout the construction process.”

There’s no excuse

D.R. Horton released its third-quarter earnings report in July, showing a $1.4 billion net income.

At Ridgely’s Reserve, the developer is selling units starting at $409K, approximately 10.5% greater than the median sale price of homes in Joppatowne.

“These are huge companies,” DeArmey said. “This is completely inexcusable for companies this large to do something like this for the amount of time that it’s happened.”

But the counties had “let them keep going because, you know, they’re selling these houses for $400,000 or $500,000, that’s taxes coming to the county…They don’t want to scare off a huge developer,” he said.

Harford County fined D.R. Horton several times due to pollution violations, but Guthrie said these fines do not make a difference. “I think we fined them up like $20,000. Well, a guy like Horton, 20 grand…it’s nothing to them.”

D.R. Horton wasn’t going to stop polluting on their own, DeArmey charged: “$20K is like a penny out of my pocket for them.”

“Everyone needs water”

Le Gardeur’s goal with the Gunpowder Riverkeeper is to ensure all communities living along the river have the tools to advocate for their own interests.

People’s interests may not lie with environmentalism; they may be healthcare access, transportation, or housing, Le Gardeur said, adding that “in this role, if we’re not actively listening to these communities, we are failing to try and figure out what’s next.”

Crone said that, in this case, the ongoing water pollution has united residents from both sides of the river and both sides of the political aisle.

Especially with the election around the corner, Crone said it has been refreshing to put political affiliations aside and remain focused on the issues at hand. “And I think that’s pretty incredible. When we’re usually divided…we’re all coming together,” she said.

“All of these people, no matter where they end up within this space, all have water in common. And water really shouldn’t be a political thing,” Le Gardeur said. “Everyone needs water.”