Quantum Loophole environmental management plan revoked due to past violations

Aug. 10—The Maryland Department of the Environment withdrew approval on May 25 for Quantum Loophole's environmental management plan for its planned campus of campus of data centers on the former Alcoa Eastalco smelting plant site due to numerous work and environmental violations.

The withdrawal of approval was primarily due to Quantum Loophole not submitting required addendums to the department before conducting work and illicit dewatering activities, according to MDE spokesperson Jay Apperson.

No installation of utilities can continue on the site until a new environmental management plan has been approved and Quantum Loophole has obtained permits to discharge contained groundwater, according to Apperson.

Quantum Loophole has yet to submit a new environmental management plan to MDE. The company is working on a draft of that new plan, according to Quantum Loophole spokesperson Steve Kearney.

During a Frederick County Council meeting in June, Quantum Loophole Chief Technology Officer Scott Noteboom said the environmental management plan provided guidelines and rules on specific areas and procedures of the project.

These areas included installing public facilities, building roadways, creating water and sewer infrastructure, dewatering and soil management.

In its letter withdrawing approval on May 25, MDE stated that several site activities, such as rock blasting and installation of sewer lines, sediment basins and an electrical substation, occurred without submission and approval of work plans and construction details.

The environmental management plan also explicitly stated "No work of the electrical substation will occur until the Addendum is approved."

As of May 25, communications from a Quantum Loophole subcontractor indicated that grading for the substation had commenced without approval of a construction plan, according to the letter.

The information comes after the Frederick County Planning Commission on Wednesday delayed a vote on a proposed electric substation on Quantum Loophole's data center campus.

During the meeting, the commission unanimously voted to continue discussing the application at next month's meeting and gave conditions that the applicant, FirstEnergy, must have in place.

Those conditions include a new environmental management plan approved by MDE, a sound study using multiple sources and an updated landscape plan replacing non-native plants with plants native to the county.

Attendees said the substation application was premature and raised concerns of the substation's possible environmental consequences and unauthorized work possibly being conducted.

The Sugarloaf Alliance submitted an image to the board from one of Quantum Loophole's drones taken on May 10 of the proposed substation site. The Alliance alleged that the image shows unauthorized land activity on the site.

Kraig Walsleben of Rodgers Consulting, who spoke on behalf of FirstEnergy at the meeting, said the earth-moving activity shown in the image was authorized and part of the Quantum Place South Improvement Plan.

The application requested approval to construct a critical digital infrastructure electric substation on a 19-acre piece of land on Quantum Loophole's data center project property.

The area the substation would be constructed on is a brownfield where the former substation for the Alcoa Eastalco smelting site was built, according to Walsleben.

Expansion, redevelopment or reuse on brownfield sites "may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant," according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Part of the approval criteria for a critical digital infrastructure electric substation requires that the application must detail potential environmental and ecological effects. The application stated the site plan "proposes no impact on forest or stream or wetland resources."

During a public comment period, Betty Law, a resident who lives near the project site, said the application was premature.

She said more details about Quantum Loophole's project, such as power consumption and the project time frame, should be provided before approving the substation.

Steve Black, president of the Sugarloaf Alliance, echoed Law and said approval of the application should wait until a new environmental management plan has been approved by MDE.

"It is premature to approve a development plan for a parcel which will be subject to an EMP, the content of which nobody knows yet," Black said.

Walsleben confirmed that at the time the substation application was submitted, the approved environmental management plan was in place.

The substation application also included a sound study and noise compliance letter, which said the noise made by an electric substation transformer would not exceed Frederick County's maximum allowable noise level of 70 decibels for industrial use areas.

Commissioner Carole Sepe said she wanted more time to look over the application's sound study results. She pointed out that the letter does not measure the noise that would be made by multiple substation transformers, which could exceed the county's maximum level.

"This doesn't seem to cover what I need it to cover," Sepe said. "I need a report that tells me that your decibels are going to be whatever with all those transformers."

Commission Chair Craig Hicks agreed with Sepe's questions. He said the sound studies the Planning Commission sees tend to be "squirrely."

"We see these analyses, and it's often not clear how many sources they're using to model, and when we find out we're talking about one source, but in the site plan we see multiple sources, it feels like obfuscation," Hicks said.

Staff writer Ceoli Jacoby contributed to this story.