Trump Clashes With Maryland Over Golf Project On A Superfund Site

President Donald Trump's plan to make over another golf course near the nation's capital — this one on top of a Superfund site at the military base home to Air Force One — is drawing pushback from Maryland Gov. Wes Moore.

The Democrat's top environmental regulator last Thursday sent a letter to the commander of Joint Base Andrews raising “serious concerns” about contaminated runoff from the project that could affect nearby neighborhoods. After the president waived state and federal water pollution rules for the work in June, she said the Air Force denied state inspectors access to the site located just over the border from Washington in Prince George’s County, Maryland.

“I take this matter seriously. My inspectors have a responsibility to assess potential environmental impacts and compliance with applicable requirements, and I expect the base to cooperate with them in carrying out that responsibility,” Maryland Department of Environment Secretary Serena McIlwain wrote in the letter shared exclusively with POLITICO.

A White House spokesperson said the revamp of the storied green will be a boon for military families. And a spokesperson for Joint Base Andrews denied that the department was barred from the base, saying that a state inspector “was escorted onto the installation.”

“President Trump is a champion-level golfer with an extraordinary eye for detail and design, and his vision to renovate and beautify Joint Base Andrews’ golf courses will bring much needed improvements that servicemembers and their families will be able to enjoy for generations to come,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said in a statement.

An Air Force spokesperson said the renovation is not occurring near the major creek that runs through the base and that polluted soil from the Superfund site is not being disturbed.

“To the extent that a future renovation and revitalization project may be conducted above the landfill, the Department of the Air Force takes careful steps to avoid known contamination and to ensure that any areas of known contamination are not disturbed, thereby safeguarding protective measures that are already in place,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “Any future work, including soil management, would be conducted in full compliance with all applicable environmental laws and regulations.”

But Trump’s waiver changes what those applicable laws are. Typically, a renovation like the one at Andrews would require permits for impacts to wetlands and streams, but Dave Abrams, a spokesperson for the Maryland Department of Environment, said the Air Force has told the department it does not plan to apply for wetlands permits and hasn't completed erosion and stormwater control permit applications.

“The Air Force has indicated that it intends to proceed with construction before receiving those approvals,” Abrams said.

The overhaul of a golf course that has beenfrequented by presidents since the 1970s is the latest in a string of contentious projects — fromthe Kennedy Center tothe Lincoln Reflecting Pool to theWhite House Ballroom to thegolf course at East Potomac Park — that Trump has rushed through typical review processes in his bid to remake the Washington, D.C., landscape in his image.

Primarily used by military personnel and families but open to local residents, the Andrews golf course has also been a popular relaxation spot for presidents. Barack Obama golfed there over 100 times throughout his presidency, and Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford and Joe Biden were also known to tee off there.

But Trump has rarely visited the course, instead opting to play at his own private resorts and clubs like Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia.

Last year, the president told reporters the Andrews facilities were “in very bad shape” before giving golf legend and famed course designer Jack Nicklaus an aerial tour of the base’s greens.

Trump has tapped Nicklaus’ firm, 1-JN, to redesign the base’s green. Labar Golf — a New Jersey-based company that has renovated six Trump Golf properties — is overseeing construction, according to a job posting and its list of clients. Neither firm responded to requests for comment.

The site, which is listed as a priority for cleanup under the nation’s Superfund law, is contaminated with hazardous materials like heavy metals, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and “forever chemicals” from decades of industrial and airfield activities. The course was built on top of one of several landfills.

It’s not unheard of to put a golf course atop a Superfund site or other landfill. In fact, doing so can be an effective way of capping the pollution there, said Clifford Villa, a law professor at the University of New Mexico who was a senior EPA official under the Biden administration.

But renovating the course, if not done carefully, could create a pathway for pollutants to be released, he said.

“At Andrews, they have contamination with lead, asbestos … they have some serious contaminants there going back a lot of years,” said Villa, whose role at EPA included oversight of the Superfund program. “So this is not insubstantial and not an insubstantial potential for release of contaminants in the soil and beneath the cap.”

Skirmishes with Maryland

Trump accused Moore in June of having "put a halt" to the golf course project, which Moore's administration denied at the time. Weeks later, Trump waived water pollution rules for the renovation, using an authority previously only tapped for national security imperatives.

A Maryland official familiar with the situation said the Trump administration and Maryland had disagreed about permits needed for the project, but that Moore did not stand in its way. 

Maryland officials' letter comes amid other environmental disputes with the Air Force.

The Moore administration is also raising concerns about an Air Force jet fuel spill in March that sent over 22,000 gallons of hazardous liquid into soil and Piscataway Creek, a Potomac River tributary, prompting the state to begin an environmental investigation and ongoing water quality monitoring. All nine Democratic members of Maryland’s congressional delegation sent a letter Wednesday to Air Force Secretary Troy Meink expressing frustrations with the cleanup.

“Remediation efforts are ongoing and will continue until water quality meets state standards,” a spokesperson for the base said when asked for comment on the spill response. “We continue to monitor and manage residual fuel that may be mobilized from subsurface soil off base during rainfall events.”

Environmentalists are skeptical about the agencies’ assertions that the golf course project won’t affect nearby waterways like Piscataway Creek, which is already under an advisory for “forever chemicals” from firefighting foam previously used on base.

“Significant excavation of this site is part of the project,” said David Flores, general counsel at Potomac Riverkeeper Network. “At worst, it could exacerbate contamination of the creek by mobilizing sources that may not even be contaminated yet.”