Federal court invalidates 50-year license for Maryland’s Conowingo Dam, a win for environmental groups

Environmental groups won a victory Tuesday in their fight for more pollution controls on Maryland’s Conowingo Dam. when a federal court invalidated a 50-year license for the hydroelectric dam. By voiding the license, issued last year by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals is sending it back to the agency for further review. Local environmental groups, including Waterkeepers Chesapeake and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, considered the license a missed opportunity to regulate how the dam’s operator manages the polluted sediment trapped behind the dam, which bridges the Susquehanna River between Harford and Cecil counties.