Civil War enthusiasts say site is no place for waste-to-energy plant

In April, when the Carroll County Board of Commissioners voted 2-1 to partner with neighboring Frederick County on a potential waste-to-energy facility, they may have renewed a battle over land that dates back to the Civil War.

Part of the agreement between the counties is that the waste-to-energy incinerator will be built in Frederick County, and one of the sites being considered by the Frederick County Board of Commissioners is directly across the Monocacy River from the Monocacy Civil War Battlefield.

"Our main concern is visual," said Susan Trail, superintendent of Monocacy National Civil War Battlefield, who expressed her misgivings at a public hearing in Frederick County last year.

"As a national battlefield, the whole point of our existence is preserving the historical battlefield landscape as best we can in a rapidly growing urban area, and to maintain it in a state that people can learn about the battle and reflect on what happened here." Trail said.

"To us, that's a very important aspect of it," she added.

The site being considered is directly across the Monocacy River, a little more than a half mile from a section of the battlefield called the Worthington Farm, where some of the most significant and bloodiest phases of the July 9, 1864 battle took place.

The site is already owned by Frederick County, already zoned industrial and there is already a county waste treatment facility there, though it is buffered by trees and not visible from the battlefield across the river.

While not actually a piece of the National Parks battlefield, the site is still within the bounds of the Monocacy National Battlefield National Historic Landmark. That means a formal proposal to build the waste-to-energy facility there would trigger a federal review under the National Historic Preservation Act.

Officials at the battlefield say a smokestack 150 feet or more in height dominating the landscape of such an historical site where Americans fought and died would defeat the original purpose of setting the land aside as a national park.

Concern for the fate of the site gathered steam earlier this year when a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, the Civil War Preservation Trust, released a report called "History Under Siege: A Guide to America's Most Endangered Civil War Battlefields."

In the report, CWPT ranked Monocacy among the nation's top 10 most endangered Civil War sites. The study also noted that the battlefield is already intersected by Interstate 270, and also lies within an area called the National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor, which means high voltage towers as tall as 15 stories may someday be built nearby.

Yet the study concluded that Monocacy's "most urgent" threat is the proposed waste-to-energy plant.

Mary Koik, deputy director of communications for the Civil War Preservation Trust, said her organization doesn't "pretend to speak about whether Frederick County needs this (incinerator) or should build it."

The CWPT's position is that the Monocacy site is not acceptable.

"This particular site would be a major intrusion that's very close in to one of the key observation points on the battlefield. It's pretty in-your-face," Koik said.

"It's not a good precedent, either," she added, "to have something of that size abutting a national park."

Not a done deal

Carroll Commissioner Michael Zimmer has visited Monocacy and has spoken with superintendent Trail to get a sense of the potential impact of an incinerator. Zimmer says even though he's a Civil War buff, he has no objections to the location.

"But that's really Frederick County's call, not mine," Zimmer added. "Though my sense is that the Frederick County commissioners are looking at some alternative sites because of some sensitivities of that site."

In an e-mail, Jan Gardener, president of the Frederick County's Board of Commissioners, confirmed as much. She also said the commissioners "value the view-shed from the battlefield and would prefer not to impact it negatively."

Gardener also said Frederick County is in negotiations with private landowners at other potential locations, but did not say where those sites were. But Gardener also made it clear that the Monocacy site is still on the table.

"When and if the county commissioners choose to proceed with a waste-to-energy facility, the county will have a public hearing on possible sites," Gardener said. "In my opinion, it is premature to assume or imply that a waste-to-energy facility will be located near the Monocacy Battlefield."

That doesn't ease the worries of Susan Trail.

"I question whether the way to commemorate Union and Confederate soldiers is to build a facility like this looming over the very place where they fought and died," the park superintendent said.

"I know some people bring this issue down to, 'Well, you just don't want it in your back yard,' " she said. "But this is the nation's back yard."

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