Environmental Activists

A coalition of environmental activists said yesterday that it will urge its 8,000 Baltimore members to vote for candidates the coalition believes will address urban environmental issues such as lead paint poisoning, recycling and emissions from the Pulaski Highway incinerator.The coalition -- which includes the Sierra Club and Clean Water Action -- endorsed Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke and City Council President Mary Pat Clarke for re-election. It backed Councilman Joseph T. "Jody" Landers III, D-3rd, for comptroller.

Environmental activists met Saturday at the University of Baltimore to organize a push for a legislative ban on the natural gas drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing — or fracking — casting the issue as a fight pitting the little guys versus the lobbyists. Del. Heather R. Mizeur told the crowd of about 200 activists that she wanted Maryland to show others that they can hold the gas industry accountable before drilling starts, rather than trying to clean up after any environmental problems.

Paul Burman ducked past a parking attendant, scooted up a cement stairway and stepped into a downtown lot crammed with oversized vehicles. "Oh," he said, sucking in his breath. "Jackpot." Ordinarily, Burman and other members of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network might shudder at the sight of sport utility vehicles. But yesterday, the environmental activists sought out gas-guzzlers in an attempt to reach out to what some might see as an unlikely partner in the effort to improve state vehicle emission standards - SUV drivers.

Virtually every major environmental group in the state is urging Gov. Martin O'Malley to veto a bill that would classify waste-to-energy incinerators as a "Tier 1" renewable resource, on par with wind and solar power, but the governor has yet to commit to either signing or rejecting it. On the surface, it sounds absurd that burning trash would be considered on the same level with truly nonpolluting energy sources, but the question becomes more complicated...

The Baltimore County Council heard a sales pitch yesterday from a coalition of environmental groups seeking approval of an enforcement tool they say will ensure protection of the county's most critical resource -- clean water.About 30 environmental activists crowded into the council chamber to push for legislation prohibiting construction on land within 75 feet of any waterway in the county.The law would require a buffer area so that storm water flowing into waterways would run along undeveloped woods and fields, rather than washing over driveways, rooftops and parking lots, said Robert Sheesley, the outgoing director of the Department of Environmental Protection and Resource Management.

Marylanders are more environmentally conscious than they were a decade ago, but they haven't changed their daily habits to protect the environment, according to a University of Maryland report completed Thursday.The report, sponsored by the Coastal and Environmental Policy Program, said the state's environmental activists have so far been unable to harness this new public consciousness, although they wield more political clout today than ever before."Everybody's pro-environment until they have to get up and sit in a traffic jam for three hours every morning.

WASHINGTON -- A coalition of environmental activists called on Congress yesterday to halt the Army's "reckless rush" to incinerate 30,000 tons of chemical weapons at eight U.S. sites, including Aberdeen Proving Ground, and asked for immediate funding of research into alternative disposal methods.In a Capitol Hill news conference, the Chemical Weapons Working Group said alternatives to burning would be safer and cheaper than the $9 billion cost of incineration. They said disassembly of the weapons and neutralization of the lethal chemical agents would meet the requirements of an international treaty for weapons destruction by 2005.

Maryland's highest court has expanded citizens' ability to challenge what they believe to be environmental hazards but has restricted which citizens can make those challenges.The Court of Appeals ruled last week that the Maryland Waste Coalition cannot appeal the 1989 permit issued to a Hawkins Point Road incinerator to burn medical waste because the coalition does not own property nearby.But the court acknowledged for the first time that citizens have a right to appeal the state permit, environmental activists said yesterday.

County office workers just couldn't resist saying it Thursday: "The Russians are coming. The Russians are coming."In a slightly different scenario from the 1966 movie, two visiting Russians had been asked to meet with County Executive Eileen M. Rehrmann for an informal discussion on chemical weapons disposal.The Russians also spoke at a town meeting, attended by about 80 people, at Joppatowne Library later that evening.Dr. Lev Fyoderov, a chemist and member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and Natalia Shevdeva, an environmental activist, were being shepherded through the county Thursday and Friday by members of the Concerned Citizens for Maryland's Environment and the Aberdeen Proving Ground Superfund Citizen Coalition.

Anne Arundel County will begin operating under revamped land-use laws in May after the County Council passed a broad package of legislation changing everything from how farmers give land to their children to how wooded land is laid out in subdivisions. Council members had spent eight months reviewing the 200 single-spaced pages of legislation, submitting 290 amendments and listening to hours of testimony from developers, environmental activists, school principals and farmers. Monday night, they voted 7-0 to approve the sweeping overhaul of land-use policies, the first in the county in 30 years.

HSA test requirement upholds diploma's value Kudos to state schools Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick, the Maryland State Board of Education and Baltimore schools CEO Andres Alonso for standing firm on requiring students to pass the High School Assessment tests to graduate from Maryland high schools ("Md. firm on tests," Oct. 29). Tenth-grade-level proficiency is the standard for these tests, so every student who graduates from high school should be required to pass them. If you cannot read at the 10th-grade level upon graduation, you will not be able to compete in the job market.

Paul Burman ducked past a parking attendant, scooted up a cement stairway and stepped into a downtown lot crammed with oversized vehicles. "Oh," he said, sucking in his breath. "Jackpot." Ordinarily, Burman and other members of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network might shudder at the sight of sport utility vehicles. But yesterday, the environmental activists sought out gas-guzzlers in an attempt to reach out to what some might see as an unlikely partner in the effort to improve state vehicle emission standards - SUV drivers.

Marjorie H. Bright, a garden club president and environmental activist, died of a stroke Sunday at Union Memorial Hospital. She was 79, and had been a resident of Roland Park Place for the past six years. Marjorie Humphreys was born in Pittsburgh and earned a degree in economics from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. In the 1940s, she did statistical work for the Gallup Poll and the Office of Population Research at Princeton University. She helped write a statistical history of World War II psychological testing of military personnel for the War Department.

Anne Arundel County will begin operating under revamped land-use laws in May after the County Council passed a broad package of legislation changing everything from how farmers give land to their children to how wooded land is laid out in subdivisions. Council members had spent eight months reviewing the 200 single-spaced pages of legislation, submitting 290 amendments and listening to hours of testimony from developers, environmental activists, school principals and farmers. Monday night, they voted 7-0 to approve the sweeping overhaul of land-use policies, the first in the county in 30 years.

A paved bicycle trail paralleling the Patapsco River on the Howard-Baltimore county border will be completed without appeal from environmental activists under an agreement reached yesterday between the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and local environmentalists and activists. The state agency agreed to build no more paved projects within Patapsco Valley State Park over the next 10 years, and the trail's opponents agreed to drop all administrative appeals. Since 1998, a dispute over the 1 1/4 -mile paved trail has pitted environmental activists who feared the effects of runoff and increased traffic against bicyclists who wanted greater access to park resources and developers who sought to improve tourism opportunities.

Preserving 145 acres of South Carroll farmland, updating the county's master plan, curbing sprawl and stopping open bay dumping are some of the most important environmental issues facing the county and Maryland this year, according to state and local activists. These and other goals were raised during an annual environmental issues forum last night at Carroll Community College. In its fifth year, the environmental issues forum is sponsored by the Catoctin chapter of the Sierra Club, a 550-member group representing Carroll, Frederick and Washington counties.

Most Marylanders believe the state's environment needs even stronger protection, and they favor tougher laws and regulations to curb pollution and preserve forests and wetlands, even if it costs them more, says a report released today.But Maryland's environmental movement needs to broaden its political base and present a clearer vision of the need for individual and social change if it hopes to harness that public support, according to the report produced by the University of Maryland.The 200-page report on the state of environmental activism in Maryland concludes that all but a few of the state's 175-odd environmental groups are handicapped by a lack of funds and staff to do their own research and to reach out to the public.

When she was 8 years old, Kathy Martin could stand up to her chest in the Bird River and see down to her feet. The river has since become so murky "you can't see anything," she says.So Mrs. Martin believes the dredging of the Bird River, scheduled to begin next fall, and the comprehensive study of the river's 17,000-acre watershed are both vital projects.Robert Christopher, who lives near the Back River, says heavy rains bring sediment that washes into the creeks around his home and turns them a muddy brown.

Lewis Winfield Bellinger, an environmental activist, died Saturday of pneumonia and complications of cancer at North Arundel Hospital. He was 86 and lived in Solley in Anne Arundel County.Regarded as a vigilant protector of his northern Anne Arundel County neighborhood -- as well as the Curtis Bay and Brooklyn sections of southern Baltimore -- for 20 years, he fought air, water and ground pollution."We called him the watchdog of the Marley Neck," said Del. Mary Rosso, a Democrat who represents northern Anne Arundel County.