Alpha Ridge

It was with great anguish that all of us in Marriottsville, West Friendship, Woodstock and the Route 99 corridor learned of plans to extend the Alpha Ridge landfill.This plan epitomizes our worst fears of the process by which our County Council makes decisions, fulfills promises and serves its residents. Indeed, if implemented, the plan provides the clearest example of how the council avoids decisions, breaks promises and destroys lives of residents.In 1978, the landfill was located on Alpha Ridge, encountering little opposition due to the then-sparse local population.

After years of planning, a local astronomy group is moving closer toward building the first publicly accessible observatory in Howard County. The Howard Astronomical League, a club of amateur astronomers, planned to submit architectural drawings to the county this week as an initial step in a more formal application to construct the observatory at Alpha Ridge Community Park in Marriottsville. Joel Goodman, observatory chairman for the league, said the application marks the culmination of more than a decade of design work and fundraising.

A group of western Howard County residents believes the county has dealt with them in bad faith. They want it to stop.Their immediateconcern is a $285,000 capital budget request before the Planning Board to study the property next to Alpha Ridge landfill as a site for possible expansion. The county says Alpha Ridge will reach capacity inabout eight years and a new site must be found soon.What is disturbing, residents say, is that the county is considering expanding Alpha Ridge before looking elsewhere.

Most of us have probably visited our local landfill to get rid of dilapidated beach chairs and particle-board tables, or to recycle batteries, paint and motor oil. Perhaps we've spent a weekend pruning everything that's green in our yards, and now it's time to throw out our lower backs along with a couple of truck-beds full of branches and clippings. In either case, the Alpha Ridge Landfill is the place to be in Howard County on the weekends. I go there often, and I find it to be a mysteriously beautiful and uplifting place.

Planned for 15 years, the county's first landfill park is just about finished -- with one nagging exception.The Alpha Ridge Community Park, on about 72 acres on the northern edge of the 590-acre Alpha Ridge Landfill in Marriottsville, has brightly colored, molded-plastic playground equipment, baseball backstops, playing fields, picnic pavilions and tennis and basketball courts. As soon as the grass is well-rooted and the fields are playable, the park will open -- probably next spring.But, said John Byrd, chief of the county Bureau of Parks, the potential for ground-water contamination from the landfill will mean portable chemical toilets in wooden kiosks will be provided instead of flush toilets and sinks with running water.

Contaminants were found in two test wells along the northern border of Alpha Ridge landfill, Public Works Department officials told the County Council last week."

Howard County officials plan to spend about $15 million to cap the Alpha Ridge landfill, collect the gases it emits and contain the contaminated ground water below it.They detailed the plan at a public meeting at Mount View Middle School in Marriottsville on Tuesday night, during which about 20 area residents quizzed them and their landfill consultants, Reston, Va.-based SCS Engineers.Residents have fought for years to close the landfill and control the toxic chemicals that seep from below it. There is no evidence that contamination has reached residential wells, but neighbors say it is only a matter of time.

Marriottsville residents living near the contaminated Alpha Ridge Landfill are going to have to wait another month to learn whether Howard County is giving them free hookups to public water or offering them low-cost loans to pay the connection charges.Councilman C. Vernon Gray, an east Columbia Democrat, wants the county to foot that bill for the residents. The county wouldn't even be thinking about offering low-interest loans if it were not responsible for the Alpha Ridge contamination, Mr. Gray said.

The Howard County Board of Appeals approved last night a 250-foot communications tower near the Alpha Ridge Landfill, despite an 11th-hour plea by a group of Marriottsville residents to delay the decision.The zoning exception sought for the tower by Nextel Communications Inc. was the latest in a flood of such requests from cellular telephone and pager companies, rushing to meet a booming demand for wireless communication in the county.Using negotiation and new regulations, county officials have tried to limit the proliferation of towers and thick metal poles for cellular antennas.

Howard County residents left with broken tree branches and other storm-related debris can take them to the county's Alpha Ridge Landfill in the 2300 block of Marriottsville Road from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.County highway yards in Elkridge, Clarksville and West Friendship will be open for disposal of residential wood debris from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.The yards are at 7751 Mayfield Ave.; 4301 Route 32, 3.5 miles north of Route 108; and at 14212 Frederick Road.Eastern county residents may recycle fallen debris on their regular collection day.Where storm damage is heavy, residents may call 410-313-4400 to request a county worker to inspect their neighborhood and decide whether a cleanup container is needed.

Howard County's sixth annual managed deer hunt will begin Oct. 18 and run through Feb. 10 in four parks, officials announced this week. Phil Norman, the county's deer project manager, said all the hunts at David Force Park, the Middle Patuxent Environmental Area, Blandair and Alpha Ridge Park will follow the same rules and safety measures used in past years. Officials are considering using a certified sharpshooter on unused land surrounding the landfill adjoining Alpha Ridge Park. Norman explained that a sharpshooter would use a high-powered rifle that might afford a more accurate shot, rather than shotguns or bows and arrows required in other county park hunts.

Howard County officials announced yesterday that they will expand local deer hunts from two parks to five this fall to intensify efforts to reduce the population -- a move praised by hunters but denounced by animal lovers. A bow hunt first discussed last winter for Blandair, the 300- acre former Smith farm in east Columbia, will go forward in October, officials said. The two other new hunt sites are High Ridge Park along the Patuxent River in southern Howard and Alpha Ridge Park in the western county -- all largely undeveloped parkland destined for recreational use. Howard has sponsored heavily regulated hunts at Middle Patuxent Environmental Area since 1999, later including David W. Force Park in West Friendship.

Howard County officials announced yesterday that they will expand local deer hunts from two parks to five this fall to intensify efforts to reduce the population - a move praised by hunters but denounced by animal lovers. A bow hunt first discussed last winter for Blandair, the 300- acre former Smith farm in east Columbia, will go forward in October, officials said. The two other new hunt sites are High Ridge Park along the Patuxent River in southern Howard and Alpha Ridge Park in the western county - all largely undeveloped parkland destined for recreational use. Howard has sponsored heavily regulated hunts at the Middle Patuxent Environmental Area since 1999, later including David W. Force Park in West Friendship.

Howard County school board members have rejected the possibility of building a high school near the county's Alpha Ridge Landfill, making it all the more probable the school will be in the small Mount View neighborhood that has been fighting to keep it out. Board members voted last week against the landfill site, even though school system officials had not reported any environmental or topographical problems with it. Board Chairwoman Jane B. Schuchardt said...

Legislation that would return $1.2 million in real estate taxes to Howard County and seek more state money to help build a new public safety training facility in Marriottsville was approved without opposition by county legislators meeting in Annapolis yesterday. Other unanimous votes gave final approval to bills that would shorten Howard school board members' terms from six to four years and raise the pay for the county's Orphans' Court judges. The unanimous endorsement of the Howard delegation is an important first step in the approval of bills in the Assembly, and in cases where state spending is not involved, it often assures passage.

The Robey administration wants to expand an outdoor police firing range at Alpha Ridge Landfill into a 30-acre training facility for Howard County firefighters and police. The location of the proposed $7.5 million facility, near Marriottsville, was revealed yesterday to Howard legislators and about 500 residents of the area, who were mailed notification letters. A public meeting to discuss the idea is scheduled at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 28 at Mount View Middle School. County Executive James N. Robey is asking county legislators to help obtain $500,000 in matching state funds to plan and begin work on the facility, which officials say is badly needed.

The county should bring public water as a safety precaution to the area surrounding Alpha Ridge Landfill in Marriottsville, Howard County Executive Charles I. Ecker said yesterday.Although Mr. Ecker hopes to draft legislation and bring it before the Planning Board in June, he estimates that it will take 18 months to amend the county's water and sewer master plan, its 1993 General Plan and other documents necessary to bring water and sewer to the area."I think we're going to have to do this sooner or later," Mr. Ecker said, "and we ought to start going through all those hoops now. We ought to start the clock running now."

Howard County officials -- stung by recent suggestions that the Alpha Ridge Landfill is a threat to its neighbors -- went on the public-relations offensive last night with new tests and a new expert to testify to the landfill's safety.Laura Green, a toxicologist from Cambridge, Mass., flown down by the county, told about 40 Marriottsville residents that she thought gases at the landfill exist in concentrations too low to affect their health."When you think about cancer in your neighborhood and you think about the landfill, stop and think about all these other causes," Green said, listing estrogen, sunlight, alcohol, asbestos, cigarettes and radiation.

Howard County residents left with broken tree branches and other storm-related debris can take them to the county's Alpha Ridge Landfill in the 2300 block of Marriottsville Road from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.County highway yards in Elkridge, Clarksville and West Friendship will be open for disposal of residential wood debris from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.The yards are at 7751 Mayfield Ave.; 4301 Route 32, 3.5 miles north of Route 108; and at 14212 Frederick Road.Eastern county residents may recycle fallen debris on their regular collection day.Where storm damage is heavy, residents may call 410-313-4400 to request a county worker to inspect their neighborhood and decide whether a cleanup container is needed.

Howard County expects to save $3 million by refinancing $14.2 million worth of bonds sold to pay for work at the Alpha Ridge Landfill -- money that will reduce overall debt over the next 17 years.The savings will come from using a state loan fund to achieve a 2.9 percent interest rate, which is below market rates.Dale Neubert, the county finance director, said the federal and state governments make the money available to encourage local governments to properly operate and cap landfills, and Howard can take advantage of the fund to save money borrowed in the early 1990s for the Alpha Ridge work, which is well under way."