Illegal Dumping

Hours after the appearance of a front-page article in The Sun on Saturday about illegal dumping on a West Baltimore community garden, two trucks and a gaggle of employees from the city's Bureau of Solid Waste descended on the site and cleared the debris . The debris removal was ordered by Mayor Sheila Dixon, who has made cleaning the city a top priority of her adminstration. Teresa M. Stephens, the manager of the garden, has received several calls and e-mails from community members and city officials since the article ran. She is now arranging for volunteers to work at the garden April 14. The group will build compost bins and possibly do some planting, she said.

A Southwest Baltimore company was cited yesterday for allegedly expanding its metal stripping business onto a city street. Inspectors from the Department of Public Works issued a citation for 27 sanitation enforcement and housing violations to Franklintown Metals and Cores, in the 100 block of McPhail St. Debris from the business, including vehicles, trash and giant wooden cable spools were reportedly impeding traffic along the street. Someone also appeared to be doing auto body work on the property without proper permits, said Department of Public Works spokesman Kurt Kocher.

A wooden boat is cast into the weeds as if it has crashed ashore. Discarded mattresses lie next to the old gas tanks from a dozen cars. Rolls of mauve- and ivory-colored carpet are piled like logs in a field. Eric A. Banks is sifting through it all trying to find information that will tell him who might have left the debris at the end of Remley Street in Fairfield. The investigator for Baltimore's new Environmental Crimes Enforcement Unit wants the dumpers arrested and hauled in front of a criminal court judge to answer why they treat this city like a huge landfill.

A Clifton Park man was arrested yesterday and charged with illegal dumping after a city worker said he saw him throwing trash onto a vacant lot in the 1700 block of Harlem Ave. in West Baltimore. Norris Hall, 66, of the 1300 block of Gorsuch Ave. was taken into custody after he refused to stop dumping trash on the lot between Fulton Avenue and North Mount Street, said Robert H. Murrow, a spokesman for the city's Department of Public Works. Hall, the 10th person arrested and accused of illegal dumping since the city's Environmental Crimes Task Force was launched in March, could be sentenced to one year in prison and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine if convicted, Murrow said.

Calling cleanup of the environment "one of the great challenges of the 1990s," Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke has announced some initiatives that he hopes to implement during the next two years.The proposals unveiled yesterday are the work of an mayoral environmental council established by Schmoke a year ago. The group included city planners and officials from the Baltimore Health Department and the Department of Public Works.The proposals, many of which are required by state and federal law and would require the City Council to enact legislation, include:* Giving the city the power to mandate solid-waste recycling if on-going voluntary efforts fall short of state requirements.

A 44-year-old Owings Mills man was arrested and charged last week in connection with the illegal dumping of more than 100 pounds of construction debris in Upton, officials said yesterday. Tommy Ray Whitehead was arrested Wednesday while at District Court on Patapsco Avenue for another illegal dumping case, city officials said. In the most recent case, police have accused Whitehead of dumping debris in a community garden in the 1200 block of Shields Place. The Sun reported last month that a huge pile of debris - including a brown house door, insulation resembling pink cotton candy and planks of wood and bricks - was left in a grassy alleyway on Shields Place that had been converted into a community garden.

Town seeks ban on illegal dumpingThe Mount Airy Town Council has proposed a $100 fine for people who illegally dump at the town's recycling bins and composting facility behind Prospect Park."

A Baltimore District judge has levied a $50,000 penalty against a city excavating company and its owner for illegal dumping, the state attorney general and environmental officials reported yesterday.Judge Charlotte M. Cooksey on Thursday ordered M. Edward Suddreth of Glen Burnie and Patapsco Excavating Inc. to perform $50,000 worth of community service projects for dumping construction debris at a landfill in the 600 block of Patapsco Ave.Cooksey suspended a 12-month sentence and a $50,000 fine and instead ordered Suddreth and the company to complete beautification projects during three years of probation.

If illegal dumping at rubble landfills is as inevitable as Delegate Marsha G. Perry believes, the Crofton Democrat wants to protect residents against the worst.Perry and six lawmakers from Anne Arundel and Prince George's counties yesterday introduced legislation that would require rubble landfills to have liners made of compacted clay, high-density polyethylene and other safeguards against contaminants seeping into the ground.State laws ban depositing anything other than tree stumps, dirt and construction debris, including asbestos, in rubble landfills.

Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke asked Baltimore's City Council yesterday to pass a package of environmental bills, including one that would impose mandatory recycling if voluntary efforts failed to meet minimum targets established by state law."This package of legislative initiatives and incentives will encourage Baltimoreans and city employees to develop a direct role in cleaning and preserving our environment," Mr. Schmoke said. "We think the local government has an important role to play."The mayor said his environmental proposals would encourage people to place a higher value on clean air and water.