Cox Creek

The Health Department closed Cox Creek to water contact yesterday afternoon after a sewage spill near Baltimore Gas & Electric Co.'s Brandon Shores and Wagner Station power plants.A break in a BG&E sewer line spilled about 9,000 gallons of untreated sewage between 1:30 and 3:30 p.m., Health Department spokeswoman Evelyn Stein said.The sewage backed up in a manhole, flowed through a ravine to a storm drain and poured into Cox Creek, she said."It's unlikely with the cold weather that that many people would be out in the water," Stein said.

New large developments in Howard County should plan on reusing wastewater instead of sending it into a Chesapeake Bay tributary, county officials say. Officials want reuse of wastewater to be the new standard for big projects, because of worries that tightening federal and state restrictions on nitrogen entering the bay could eventually outstrip the capacity of the county wastewater treatment plant on the Little Patuxent River in Savage. "It's better for the environment, and it's a response to how we're going to grow effectively," said County Executive Ken Ulman, a Democrat, about a new county policy still being discussed.

Faced with a slow downward spiral in its copper refining business, the Cox Creek Refining Co. is phasing out production at its northern Anne Arundel County plant and is considering selling the 165-acre facility."

A MAJOR obstacle looms before the port of Baltimore's revival effort: dredging. Finding a place to dump the sandy silt is highly controversial. But as former port Director Tay Yoshitani put it, "Dredging is our license to compete." Four million cubic yards of the stuff must be removed each year from Baltimore's 50-foot shipping channel, which extends 126 miles to the mouth of the Chesapeake. Another 18 million cubic yards of material will be dredged in the next several years to make important safety improvements in the shipping channels.

Cox Creek Refining Co. announced yesterday that it would lay off more than 100 of its 276 workers as early as the middle of May.W. Scott Armentrout, attorney for the Pasadena company, said that "continuing losses from operations" have forced Cox Creek to shut down its casting operation -- in which the copper is shaped into long, flat plates.The casting shop will be closed June 1 and is likely to remain closed for at least a year, Mr. Armentrout said.The company did not know exactly how many workers would be laid off, but it was warning them of the shutdown now because of a new federal law requiring advance notification, he said.

The tugboats that pull Patapsco River fuel barges for Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.'s two coal-fired plants in Pasadena have moved to refurbished docks near Cox Creek.The boats moved from BGE's Riverside Power Plant in Baltimore, where they were docked for 11 years, to be closer to the utility's two largest coal-fired plants, Brandon Shores and Wagner off Fort Smallwood Road, said John Garrison, a power company supervisor.The outmoded oil-burning Riverside units were closed last year, but the boats remained berthed there even though they were no longer needed.

State harbor officials are an Anne Arundel County Council vote away from converting the old Cox Creek Refining Co. in Pasadena into a new site for placing dredged material.Yesterday, representatives from the Maryland Port Administration (MPA) took five of the nine council members, George F. Bachman, William C. Mulford II, Bert L. Rice, Thomas W. Redmond and chairwoman Diane L. Evans, on a tour of the 167-acre property on Kembo Road.The MPA needs council approval to buy the site, 61 acres of which would be used for dumping sediment from the Baltimore Harbor.

Cox Creek Refining Co. in northern Anne Arundel County has 45 days to start protecting its workers from toxic lead dust and fumes, an official of the employees union said yesterday.Under an agreement reached Tuesday by the copper refinery and the union, the company must ventilate the plant, give protective uniforms to workers in hazardousareas and install air blowers to rid workers of dust, said Willie Long, president of United Electrical Workers Local 125.The state has cited the Fort Smallwood and Kembo roads plant for violating workplace safety laws -- such as exposing workers to airborne lead levels almost 10 times higher than federal standards allow --and has proposed $5,500 in fines.

The state Department of the Environment has fined a northern Anne Arundel County copper refinery $13,000 for violations of anti-air pollution laws, including the release of visible emissions.Inspectors witnessed visible emissions, an indicator of potentially dangerous pollutants, escaping the smokestacks at the Cox Creek Refining Co. on three days last June, said spokesman John Goheen.The plant, at Fort Smallwood and Kembo Roads, also failed to comply with state reporting requirements for toxic air emissions, Goheen said.

It is important, as Maryland seeks to move from the smokestack industries of the past to the high-tech future, to remember that there is still life in some of the old smokestacks. Cox Creek Refining Co., in northern Anne Arundel County, had its share of difficulties before being bought by a Japanese company, but is thus far one of the survivors.Now the Maryland Occupational Safety and Health office has cited Cox Creek for abnormally high levels of lead dust, a byproduct of its copper refining process.

Vehicle assembler prospective occupant of Cox Creek siteUAZ of America Inc., a Dulles, Va.-based company that assembles Russian jeeps, is a leading prospect in joint efforts by state and Anne Arundel County officials to attract a manufacturer to the former Cox Creek Refining Co. site in Pasadena.In March, the Maryland Port Administration bought the 167-acre site for $1.6 million from the Mitsubishi Corp., the parent company of the defunct Cox Creek Refining Co. The property contains a 600,000-square-foot manufacturing or warehouse building.

State harbor officials are an Anne Arundel County Council vote away from converting the old Cox Creek Refining Co. in Pasadena into a new site for placing dredged material.Yesterday, representatives from the Maryland Port Administration (MPA) took five of the nine council members, George F. Bachman, William C. Mulford II, Bert L. Rice, Thomas W. Redmond and chairwoman Diane L. Evans, on a tour of the 167-acre property on Kembo Road.The MPA needs council approval to buy the site, 61 acres of which would be used for dumping sediment from the Baltimore Harbor.

The tugboats that pull Patapsco River fuel barges for Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.'s two coal-fired plants in Pasadena have moved to refurbished docks near Cox Creek.The boats moved from BGE's Riverside Power Plant in Baltimore, where they were docked for 11 years, to be closer to the utility's two largest coal-fired plants, Brandon Shores and Wagner off Fort Smallwood Road, said John Garrison, a power company supervisor.The outmoded oil-burning Riverside units were closed last year, but the boats remained berthed there even though they were no longer needed.

Faced with a slow downward spiral in its copper refining business, the Cox Creek Refining Co. is phasing out production at its northern Anne Arundel County plant and is considering selling the 165-acre facility."

Stony, Nabbs and Cox creeks are healthy but still suffer the aches and pains of heavy suburban development.That's the diagnosis in a 94-page report released by the Northern Anne Arundel County Chamber of Commerce's Tri-Creek Committee.The prescribed remedy? Community-based cleanups, such as those planned this weekend, said Randy Jones, chairman of the Tri-Creek Committee.The report identifies 75 trash-dumping areas that need cleaning, 48 eroding banks that need reinforcement, 10 barriers to fish migration, and other potential problems along the three waterways.

The Health Department closed Cox Creek to water contact yesterday afternoon after a sewage spill near Baltimore Gas & Electric Co.'s Brandon Shores and Wagner Station power plants.A break in a BG&E sewer line spilled about 9,000 gallons of untreated sewage between 1:30 and 3:30 p.m., Health Department spokeswoman Evelyn Stein said.The sewage backed up in a manhole, flowed through a ravine to a storm drain and poured into Cox Creek, she said."It's unlikely with the cold weather that that many people would be out in the water," Stein said.

Stony, Nabbs and Cox creeks are healthy but still suffer the aches and pains of heavy suburban development.That's the diagnosis in a 94-page report released by the Northern Anne Arundel County Chamber of Commerce's Tri-Creek Committee.The prescribed remedy? Community-based cleanups, such as those planned this weekend, said Randy Jones, chairman of the Tri-Creek Committee.The report identifies 75 trash-dumping areas that need cleaning, 48 eroding banks that need reinforcement, 10 barriers to fish migration, and other potential problems along the three waterways.

Vehicle assembler prospective occupant of Cox Creek siteUAZ of America Inc., a Dulles, Va.-based company that assembles Russian jeeps, is a leading prospect in joint efforts by state and Anne Arundel County officials to attract a manufacturer to the former Cox Creek Refining Co. site in Pasadena.In March, the Maryland Port Administration bought the 167-acre site for $1.6 million from the Mitsubishi Corp., the parent company of the defunct Cox Creek Refining Co. The property contains a 600,000-square-foot manufacturing or warehouse building.

The discovery of toxic chemicals has complicated the county's disposal of 100,000 gallons of sludge removed from two illegal sewage lagoons in Gambrills.Laboratory tests show the sludge contains low levels of volatile organic chemicals and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), both more typically found in industrial rather than residential waste, said a Department of Utilities spokeswoman.Heavy metals were also found.Utilities officials are leery ofsending the tainted sludge through the Cox Creek Waste Water Treatment plant as originally planned, said spokeswoman Jody Vollmar.

It is important, as Maryland seeks to move from the smokestack industries of the past to the high-tech future, to remember that there is still life in some of the old smokestacks. Cox Creek Refining Co., in northern Anne Arundel County, had its share of difficulties before being bought by a Japanese company, but is thus far one of the survivors.Now the Maryland Occupational Safety and Health office has cited Cox Creek for abnormally high levels of lead dust, a byproduct of its copper refining process.