Discharge

Neighbors of Francis Scott Key High School are appealing a decision allowing the school to discharge effluent from a new septic waste treatment plant to a tributary of Little Pipe Creek.The Maryland Department of the Environment approved a permit in April for the school to discharge up to 17,000 gallons of treated effluent daily into the unnamed stream.Bark Hill Road residents protested at a January public hearing that they should have been notified individually of the school system's plan.

A 67-year-old woman struck by a car Saturday night in Parkville died of her injuries early Monday morning, Baltimore County police said. Police identified the woman as Sharon Marie Bialek of Baltimore. Bialek was crossing Putty Hill Avenue on foot in a crosswalk near Harford Road at around 9:30 p.m. with her husband Robert Bialek, 71, when a 2004 Toyota Tacoma turning onto Harford Road hit them, police said. The driver, a 59-year-old man, remained at the scene. Both pedestrians were taken to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center with potentially life-threatening injuries.

After years of legal battles, Carroll County has won approval to increase the discharge from its Hampstead wastewater treatment plant - but only if it keeps the effluent from getting too warm. The decision Tuesday, from the Maryland Department of the Environment, raises the possibility that the county could have to spend millions of dollars to chill the discharge to the required 68 degrees. It also requires the county to monitor the normal temperature of Piney Run, a stream whose name changes to Western Run in Baltimore County.

Police said a Hanover, Md., man died Saturday after being shot while lying on the couch at a home he was visiting in Westminster. Westminster police said Vygants Tomas Campe, 46, died after being struck by a bullet from a gun that may have discharged accidentally. Police said on March 16 at about 11:45 a.m., officers and emergency medical personnel responded to a residence in the 400 block of South Hills Court in Westminster for the report of a shooting. When they arrived they found a man, later identified as Campe, on the first floor of the home suffering from a single gunshot wound.

A Wal-Mart in Catonsville closed yesterday evening after pepper spray was discharged in the store. Eight customers were treated at the scene for skin and eye irritation.Baltimore County police and fire personnel were called to the store at 6205 Baltimore National Pike about 6: 15 p.m. None of the injured customers sought further medical treatment, police said.Police have no suspects in the incident. The store was expected to reopen today, police said.

The Maryland Department of the Environment will hold a public hearing Aug. 11 on Browning-Ferris Industries' application to discharge treated water from its Solley Road hazardous waste landfill into an intermittent stream that leads to Marley Creek.The hearing, a continuation of one held in June, will be at 2:30 p.m. in the fire station at Solley and Fort Smallwood roads in Riviera Beach. The agency planned the hearing because it did not properly notify people of the earlier hearing.Protective environmental measures are failing at the Solley Road landfill, closed since 1982.

Despite neighbors' objections, the state Department of the Environment has issued a permit to allow school officials to discharge treated septic waste into a local stream.The permit allows the school system to discharge up to 17,000 gallons of treated effluent daily from Francis Scott Key High School into an unnamed tributary of Little Pipe Creek.Replacement of the inadequate 40-year-old septic system is part of a $16.3 million expansion and renovation of the high school, which began in the fall.

A plan to discharge treated sewage from Francis Scott Key High School onto a nearby dairy farm was unveiled before Carroll County commissioners yesterday by a New Windsor consultant.The commissioners immediately lauded the idea of David T. Duree, president of Advance Systems, as an inexpensive way to correct a costly error by the county Board of Education. The school board built the $800,000 wastewater treatment plant last year to replace its aging septic system, but failed to obtain state construction and discharge permits.

Several Baltimore County and Carroll County residents raised concerns yesterday about Carroll's request to nearly double the amount of discharge from the Hampstead Wastewater Treatment Plant into a nearby stream.Carroll has asked the Maryland Department of the Environment to permit the Hampstead facility to increase its discharge from 500,000 gallons per day to 900,000 gallons per day to accommodate growth in the Hampstead area. County officials said the increased discharge has been part of that region's master plan.

Villa Julie College can receive a state permit to discharge treated sewage water into a stream that intermittently feeds the Jones Falls, a state administrative law judge has ruled.The decision is the latest in a series of rulings that have allowed the private, four-year institution to proceed with plans to expand at its location in the semi-rural Green Spring Valley over opposition from neighbors.Baltimore County has authorized an amendment to its water and sewer master plan permitting the college to build a waste water treatment plant to replace a failing septic system.

A Baltimore City Sheriff's Office deputy suffered a gunshot wound after unintentionally firing the deputy's own firearm in a non-public area of the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center on Friday morning, Sheriff's Office officials said. Maj. Sam Cogen of the Sheriff's Office said that at approximately 8:02 a.m., a deputy unintentionally discharged one round from the service weapon while preparing for a duty shift and was struck in the left hip area. First aid was administered at the scene, and the deputy was transported to Maryland Shock Trauma with non-life-threatening injuries, Cogen said.

Gov. Martin O'Malley taxes and "fees" still continue. There was a letter sent out by the Maryland Department of the Environment in September to industrial waste water dischargers in Maryland. It is important to note that even those industries that take in and then discharge water from rivers or the Chesapeake are considered an industrial discharger even if it is only used as non-contact cooling water. For decades industries have paid fees to withdraw the water and discharge the very same water with zero added chemicals of any kind.

Borrowers overwhelmed by private student loan debt often discover an ugly truth too late — these loans can't be discharged in bankruptcy like other types of consumer loans. A new report on private student loans by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the U.S. Department of Education suggests it may be time to change that. The agencies say these loans offer so little flexibility to struggling borrowers that Congress might consider revising the bankruptcy law given today's tough economy.

This big, deep, dark, mystery being investigated by the Baltimore City Department of Public Works and the Maryland Department of the Environment is more of the city's (and state's) cover-up of deplorable conditions at the Inner Harbor. Kimberly Burgess, the city's director of surface water management, won't confirm or rule out a sewage spill or leak. Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Department of the Environment discounts the odor complaints as likely a continuation of the algae bloom that generated noxious smells and killed fish in the harbor.

A Baltimore County woman had about $340,000 in student loan debt discharged by a federal bankruptcy judge this month because Asperger's syndrome prevents her from holding a job. Carol Todd of Nottingham pursued college degrees "as a stepping stone toward a measure of liberation … and perhaps to help her achieve something closer to a normal life," according to the May 17 opinion of Judge Robert A. Gordon, a bankruptcy judge for the District of...

Three people were killed Friday after a car lost control on a curve and crashed into a milk truck in Phoenix, Baltimore County police said. A Volkswagen Jetta was traveling northbound on Jarrettsville Pike when it crossed the center line into the path of the truck, police said. The Jetta overturned on its left side. The truck struck a tree and remained upright, but its tanker turned on its left side, police said. The crash occurred at 6:09 a.m. in the 12600 block of Jarrettsville Pike, just north of the intersection with Dulaney Valley Road.

State environmental officials have sued a Westminster machining and welding business, accusing the company of illegally discharging wastewater with excessive amounts of copper for more than 20 years. The maximum penalty for the alleged offense is $10,000 a day for each violation, according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday in Carroll County Circuit Court by lawyers for the Maryland Department of the Environment. The state alleges that Laser Applications Inc., in the 1100 block of Business Parkway South, has never had a permit to discharge wastewater from its "water jet" cutting processes.

An 18-year-old female Army recruit, a key accuser in the investigation of sexual misconduct by drill instructors at Aberdeen Proving Ground, has been granted a hardship discharge from the Army Ordnance Center and School, APG officials confirmed yesterday.A request for the discharge by Pvt. Jessica Bleckley -- who said on a national news program in November that she had been pressured into having sex with two drill sergeants at the military base -- is being processed by the Army and should be completed Monday, said APG spokeswoman Rachel McDonald.

Not sure it was timed on purpose, but weeks ahead of New Year's, city prosecutors have secured a five year prison sentence for a man who celebrated 2011 the way cops wish residents would not -- by shooting into the air. Maybe it's a message for residents to find another way to welcome in 2012. Keith Taylor, 29, was arrested minutes after midnight on Jan. 1 after police heard gunshots from a house in East Baltimore. The officers said they saw Taylor run inside when they pulled up, and found numerous spent 9mm rounds and shotgun shells.

A Baltimore City police officer wounded when a colleague accidentally fired his gun inside a house in Odenton on Tuesday returned fire at the "perceived threat," according to new information from authorities in Anne Arundel County. The city officer, who was struck in the arm, "fired several rounds in response to the perceived threat," according to a statement released this morning that offers new details of the shooting and backs what an occupant of the house has told reporters. Police had gone to the house in the 100 block of Pine Cove Ave. in Odenton searching for a drug suspect.