CBF Mourns the Loss of Ridge Hall, Environmental Lawyer and Mentor to Many

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) joins the Chesapeake Legal Alliance and many others mourning the loss of Ridge Hall, a long-time environmental lawyer and mentor. CBF’s Vice President of Litigation, Paul Smail, worked with Mr. Hall for more than a decade. 

Starting in 2015, CBF, Blue Water Baltimore, and Mr. Hall worked together to stem the pollution from the former Sparrows Point steel mill, pressing MDE and EPA to address the legacy groundwater pollution flowing off the site. Ultimately EPA listed the toxic sediments in Bear Creek a Superfund site, which we expect will result in significant improvements to the water quality and living resources around the former steel plant. 

After his passing, CBF’s Vice President of Litigation and General Counsel Paul Smail issued this statement.

“Ridge was a friend and mentor. He had incredible patience as well as an easy charm that belied a razor-sharp intellect and incisively inquisitive mind. He was a tenacious advocate who never lost sight of what we all fight for—leaving our community and watershed in a better state than we found it.”