Wawa Will Resume Sales of Newspaper, Says Pulling Editions Off Stands Was Misunderstanding; Emphasizes Strong Support for Bay Clean-Up Laws
By Kenneth C. Rossignol
ST. MARY'S TODAY
CALIFORNIA, MD. --- The public relations representative for Wawa Food Markets and the regional manager for the company both assured ST. MARY'S TODAY on Monday that their company will be resuming sale of the newspaper in their Southern Maryland stores on Wednesday after they have time to contact each store manager with new instructions.
The stores had stopped selling the newspaper over the weekend, with two store clerks reporting that they were told it was a corporate office decision in response to a news article in the paper on Aug. 1st which caused the company embarrassment which led to the decision.
Both the regional supervisor for Wawa, Anthony Bizzaro, and Lori Bruce, the public relations director for the company said this action was a misunderstanding among staff and that the company is a vigorous supporter of the regulations regarding protecting the Chesapeake Bay from construction runoff.
"Our company is undertaking an investigation to determine how this happened and will take strong action with our contractor," said Lorri Bruce of Wawa's public relations division. "We are a strong supporter of environmental laws and respect the right of the newspaper to report the news accurately."
Bruce did not contest whether the report was accurate and acknowledged seeing the photo showing the runoff violations.
Maryland's stormwater management regulations prohibit any construction site from allowing mud to be tracked out onto the highway and this photo above shows that there was absolutely no attempt to provide for hay bales or a silt fence to block the flow of dirt into this storm drain, which leads directly to the headwaters of the St. Mary's River and then to the Chesapeake Bay, covering oyster bars and degrading water quality. 
The director of Land Use for St. Mary's County, Dennis Canavan, was contacted by ST. MARYS TODAY when this photo was taken and he immediately went to the site and ordered corrective action taken by the contractor to restrict the flow of dirt during storms, erection of barriers and installation of crusher run to prevent trucks from tracking mud out onto the highway, as appears in this photo. 
Sen. Roy Dyson's (D. Calvert, St. Mary's) office was contacted and asked to request Maryland Department of the Environment inspectors to appear at the site.  The MDE inspector reported back that there were only a couple of shovel fulls of dirt on the road, which doesn't match the photo above or the conditions found by the St. Mary's County Land Use Director.
On Saturday, Aug. 14th, the manager of the Lexington Park Wawa on Great Mills Road refused delivery of current edition of ST. MARY'S TODAY and the assistant manager of the Mechanicsville Wawa said that the corporate office had instructed all Southern Maryland Wawas to stop selling the paper due to the newspaper's embarrassing the company by showing the photos showing the Wawa pollution.
Sen. Dyson told ST. MARY'S TODAY that he will be calling on state officials to explain if they have issued citations for this violation, as shown in the photo and if not, when will they do so.
"I am really unhappy to see this really arrogant disregard for our stormwater management laws," said Sen. Dyson, who is co-chairman of the General Assembly's oversight committee on Critical Areas.  "This storm drain empties directly into the St. Mary's River, which winds it's way down to the Chesapeake in just a couple of miles. When we have large corporations disregarding the stormwater managment laws, we will continue to see a further drop in water quality in the Chesapeake."
St. Mary's Commissioner Larry Jarboe (R. Golden Beach) said he would be asking the county's land use department head for a full report on the stormwater violations at the Wawa site.
The contractor at the Wawa site has been repeatedly blocking traffic on the turn lanes of Rt. 4 and of Rt. 235, as the site is on the corner of the two roads.   The highway has recently been rebuilt at a cost of tens of millions to the public and the contractor cannot rent or appropriate the public highway as part of his construction site.  Maryland State Police Leonardtown Barracks Commander Capt. Mike Spaulding has been sending out troopers to remove construction vehicles from the traveled portion of the highway since the construction got under way in May.

This contractor's utility truck and a crane block the turn lane of Rt. 4 onto Rt. 235, an almost daily occurance. 
ST. MARY'S TODAY photo