Maryland reaches $4M settlement with developer blamed for Gunpowder River pollution

Four years after residents noticed clouds of silt choking the Gunpowder River downstream from a large home construction site in Harford County, Maryland officials reached a $4 million settlement with a trio of firms behind the development.

Maryland environmental regulators and a watchdog for the Gunpowder River sued the homebuilding giant D.R. Horton, its subsidiary Forestar Group and contractor Kinsley Construction in 2024 over operations at their 121-acre construction site, where state and county inspectors found scores of failures to protect against erosion and runoff into a branch of the Gunpowder.

In spring of 2022, developers cleared more than 100 acres of forest for Ridgley’s Reserve, a community of nearly 400 single-family homes in Joppatowne along the Foster Branch north of the Gunpowder. Soon, residents began to notice issues in the river. Heavy rains could turn much of the Lower Gunpowder a cloudy orange as sediment blocked sunlight from reaching the riverbed’s thick underwater grasses.

Residents and state regulators blamed Ridgley’s Reserve.

“These violations were not minor. They were repeated. They were preventable. And they caused real harm to the Gunpowder River and the communities that depend on it,” Secretary of the Environment Serena McIlwain said in a news release. “This settlement holds these companies accountable, stops the damage, and directs meaningful resources back into the communities and waterways that were impacted.”

Forestar, the lead developer, and D.R. Horton, the majority owner, didn’t responded to requests for comment Tuesday. Kinsley, a former contractor on the Ridgley’s Reserve project, also did not respond.

Under the settlement, the three firms denied any violation of state law, and the state allowed construction at Ridgley’s Reserve to continue.

But the companies agreed to enter a consent decree requiring enhanced pollution controls, as well as automatic fines for future pollution discharges and noncompliance with settlement terms.

The developers will pay a $2 million civil penalty and fund another $2.1 million for environmental projects to improve habitat and water quality in the Gunpowder and Foster Branch. Money from this fund will support competitive grants for nonprofits, community associations and local governments.

Compared to many environmental compliance cases in Maryland, the settlement is substantial. In the 2024 fiscal year, the Department of Environment collected about $46,500 from enforcements of similar construction-related infractions, according to agency reporting.

In the state’s news release, Attorney General Anthony Brown said Maryland waterways cannot be “dumping grounds for construction runoff.”

“This settlement holds polluters accountable and directs meaningful funding into the communities and waterways that were harmed,” he said.

After construction began in Joppatowne, researchers studying underwater grasses documented a “mysterious” mass die-off of Gunpowder vegetation, which filters water and provides habitat for underwater life, such as fish and crabs.

A year later, Harford County leaders passed a bill restricting development to 20 acres at a time, the Baltimore Sun reported.

D.R. Horton, which brands itself as “America’s Largest Homebuilder,” has experienced a recent surge in liabilities over its construction projects, according to the Wall Street Journal. The firm’s reserves for legal claims jumped by more than 50%, to $1.1 billion, between 2022 and 2025.

The effort to hold D.R. Horton accountable for damage to the Gunpowder was “truly a David versus Goliath fight,” said Gunpowder Riverkeeper Theux Le Gardeur.

A watchdog for the Chesapeake Bay tributary, Le Gardeur declared his intent to sue the Ridgley’s Reserve developers in August of 2024, a month a before Maryland filed its claims, and later intervened alongside the state.

Le Gardeur, who is also running as a Republican for Baltimore County Council, said his organization intends to keep close tabs on the settlement money and next steps at Ridgley’s Reserve.

“I think the path to restoring the Gunpowder tidal basin has just begun,” he said. “We’re just reaching a full understanding of the impact.”