Hazardous Waste

Tuesday is deadline to register to vote Carroll County residents have until 9 p.m. Tuesday to register to vote in the Nov. 7 general election. Board of Elections members will be in all county public libraries to register citizens and collect voter registrations from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday. The Board of Elections office will be open from 9 a.m. to noon Saturdays Oct. 21 and 28, when residents may cast an absentee ballot. Voter registration and absentee ballot applications may be downloaded from the Board of Elections Web site, www.carr.

Baltimore County is sponsoring a household hazardous waste collection and a compost bin sale today at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium. Both events will be held rain or shine. County residents may bring household hazardous waste items to the parking lot of the fairgrounds, 2200 York Road, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.. Residents are asked to use the Timonium Road entrance and follow signs. Residents may bring these materials: paints, motor oil, antifreeze, gasoline, cleaning solvents, pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, swimming pool chemicals, mercury thermometers, fluorescent light bulbs, fireworks, and ammunition and other household hazardous wastes.

You know that old useless computer that's been sitting around your house for months, waiting to be trashed or given to a charity? It could become part of the fastest-growing stream of waste in the industrialized world - a toxic stream that, a recent study confirmed, can end in Third World dumping grounds. Various consumer electronics often are laced with as much as several pounds of lead, cadmium and other toxic materials. With about 60 million computers deemed obsolete each year in the United States and an estimated 300,000 tons of such potentially hazardous e-waste ending up in landfills, computer recycling is a big growth industry - with manufacturers and private contractors collecting the old equipment.

In Baltimore County Residents can bring hazardous waste to park for disposal COCKEYSVILLE - County residents can bring their household hazardous waste to Oregon Ridge Park from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. tomorrow for a special one-day drop-off. Hazardous materials that will be accepted include: paints, motor oil, antifreeze, gasoline, cleaning solvents, pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, swimming pool chemicals and mercury thermometers. Staff from the county's Department of Environmental Protection and Resource Management will be there to receive the waste and arrange disposal.

Baltimore residents can drop off hazardous household materials today and tomorrow from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Polytechnic Institute parking lot at Falls Road and Cold Spring Lane. The city schedules centralized collection of unwanted toxic substances twice a year, in the fall and spring. Eligible items - which will not be collected from homes - include pesticides, batteries, gasoline, pool chemicals, bleach, herbicides and drain cleaners. Proof of city residency is required to drop off material.

After extensive testing on a 60-year-old trash dump discovered next to an elementary school on Fort Meade, Army officials said yesterday the land does not appear to be contaminated by hazardous waste. Environmental officials had concerns about the half-acre dump, which construction workers from Picerne Real Estate Group discovered in February, because petroleum covered some of the household trash that was dumped there. Picerne, a Rhode Island-based company that is building about 3,000 homes at Fort Meade under a 50-year, $3 billion contract, was planning to put a few houses on the dump site.