Sparrows Point: An Environmental Success Story (2022)

Sparrows Point…near Baltimore, Maryland…the first furnace was built here in 1887 - 22 years after the Civil War’s end. By the 1950’s and 60’s, Sparrows Point had become the world's largest steel mill, stretching 4 miles from end to end and employing 30,000 workers! Essentially, it was a town with its own culture, schools, police force and recreational area.

For more than a century, the mills at Sparrows Point turned out steel by the ton. The immense operation helped supply a nation and employed generations of Marylanders.

But much of that productivity predated modern environmental regulations, leaving a peninsula that is arguably the most complex cleanup site in the state, if not the entire Chesapeake Bay watershed.

And it is just one of hundreds of properties across Maryland that has been or is being cleaned up – in many instances for job-creating reuse – under the oversight of the Maryland Department of the Environment. For a project of this scale, nearly every department of MDE was engaged - basically all hands on deck. Regular meetings, site visits and research paralleled lots of intensive and dangerous cleanup.

Barbara Brown and Jennifer Sohns of MDE have overseen much of Sparrows Point’s transformation over the years. In this video, they share how this project has been one of the largest for the agency and how it's been not only a success story for the MDE but also the State of Maryland.

IMAGE CREDITS:
Baltimore Museum of Industry - https://www.thebmi.org/
Tradepoint Atlantic - https://www.tradepointatlantic.com/

VIDEO CREDIT:
GregCoxTV -    / @gregcoxtv  

00:00 Intro
01:32 More Than A Steel Mill
10:00 Public Concern
14:07 Tradepoint Atlantic
16:39 The Future