Site of closed Maryland center for people with disabilities found to be environmental hazard; advocates furious

From Jennifer Bishop at The Baltimore Brew:

A legislator’s email warning his northwest Baltimore County constituents about “staggering” levels of contamination from asbestos and other substances at the shuttered Rosewood Center (pictured), has advocates for people with disabilities incensed by the irony.

“The State’s assessment found Rosewood to be so dangerous as to recommend that no one trespass on the property,” said Cristy Marchand, executive director of the ARC of Maryland. “The real question is the response that will be made to the hundreds of children and adults with developmental disabilities whose health was threatened by toxic conditions while living for decades at Rosewood Center.”

The mass email, which describes underground storage tanks and environmental seepage at the former institution for people with disabilities, was sent out yesterday by State Senator Robert A. “Bobby” Zirkin (D-Baltimore County.) It’s based in part on a quietly-released environmental assessment from the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Costing the state millions of dollars for inefficient and what many felt was substandard care for a dwindling number of residents with disabilities, the institution was finally closed by Governor O’Malley in January of ‘08, and the last resident moved out in May ‘09. But that was not the end. Now the property, though uninhabited, is still costing the state $2.6 million a year for security and upkeep, because it needs a lengthy and expensive clean up before it can be sold. To see the master plan for future development of the Rosewood site, click here, and then click on the Rosewood photo at the right of that site.

Although Rosewood housed our most vulnerable disabled population just eight months ago, it is now considered a dangerous environmental and health hazard, according to the DHMH assessment.

Zirkin saw fit to warn his constituents in graphic terms:

“Buildings throughout the property contain dangerous lead and asbestos,” he wrote. “An underground tunnel system, abandoned for many years, snakes around the campus with hints of environmental seepage. Coal ash is abundant on the property with high density near the old power plant. Multiple contaminants were found on the property. And underground storage tanks with unknown chemicals lie throughout. These environmental issues pose a serious risk, and the challenge of cleaning these grounds is of critical importance…It is vitally important that individuals not trespass on this abandoned property. Rosewood is simply an unsafe environment…”

He goes on to say that “the remediation of the Rosewood grounds is a staggering challenge given the enormity of the environmental and health issues. Cleaning Rosewood will unfortunately take significant time. The grounds…contain the accumulation of a century of use and decades of decay. Cleaning these grounds is of critical importance to our area and for the future of Northwest Baltimore County.”

What about the hundreds of people who recently lived there? As Margie Allen, a parent of an adult with developmental disabilities, commented, “This…makes me ill. It was fine for our loved ones to live in until recently but now it’s not safe to even walk across the grass.”

Tragically, this sort of double standard was historically prevalent, as the ARC’s Marchand points out. “During the height of the 60’s Civil Rights marches for equality and rights, people with disabilities were being forced to strip naked and be hosed down at Rosewood for running away – paid for by state dollars.”