Incinerator

Accusing the state of failing to control industrial air pollution, environmental groups went to court yesterday to force the Maryland Department of the Environment to set new emission limits for a Baltimore trash incinerator. The groups also threatened to sue Atlanta-based Mirant for allegedly spewing pollutants from one of its power plants in suburban Washington. The plant has been operating for years without a permit. Activists said the actions were prompted by their frustration with the O'Malley administration for foot-dragging in dealing with pollution violations at some of the state's largest factories and power plants.

Fort Meade is proposing to build a sewage sludge incinerator, a prospect that has drawn outrage among western Anne Arundel County civic leaders and criticism from the county's top health official about the potential environmental and health impacts. The Maryland Department of the Environment is holding a public hearing tonight in Odenton to discuss plans by a Tennessee contractor, Ameresco Federal Solutions, to build the incinerator near the Army post's sewage plant adjacent to the intersection of Routes 32 and 198. The incinerator would run 24 hours a day on weekdays, disposing of hundreds of tons of sewage a year more cheaply than by trucking the waste away, county and Fort Meade officials said.

Fort Meade is proposing to build a sewage sludge incinerator, a prospect that has drawn outrage among western Anne Arundel County civic leaders and criticism from the county's top health official about the potential environmental and health impacts. The Maryland Department of the Environment is holding a public hearing tonight in Odenton to discuss plans by a Tennessee contractor, Ameresco Federal Solutions, to build the incinerator near the Army post's sewage plant adjacent to the intersection of Routes 32 and 198. The incinerator would run 24 hours a day on weekdays, disposing of hundreds of tons of sewage a year more cheaply than by trucking the waste away, county and Fort Meade officials said.

About 150 union members, Baltimore residents and environmentalists rallied outside a Hawkins Point medical incinerator yesterday to protest a stalemate in contract negotiations that has left 70 workers unemployed since the company locked them out in June.The protesters began gathering outside the incinerator at 3200 Hawkins Point Road, owned by Phoenix Services Inc., about 4: 30 p.m. The incinerator is on the southern edge of the city, just north of the Anne Arundel County line.The rally, organized by the Metropolitan Baltimore Council AFL-CIO Unions, drew supporters from the United Auto Workers, the Communications Workers of America and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, among other unions.

They felt alone for the longest time, the hamlet of Armistead Gardens vs. the aging trash-burning plant less than a mile away; ordinary folks sick of a horizon that always looked gray, tired of the slimy soot that wafted their way from the Pulaski Incinerator.For years the fight was against City Hall. In 1981, when Baltimore sold the trash-burning plant to Willard J. Hackerman, residents had to battle the wealth and influence of the Whiting-Turning Construction Co. owner.It is amazing to the people of Armistead Gardens and their supporters that the little people seem to have won: Hackerman says he's ready to demolish the 41-year-old incinerator and donate the land to the communities that hounded him.Along the way, the fight against the incinerator picked up support from environmentalists, politicians and hundreds of residents in Belair-Edison, Rosedale, Beverly Hills, and other neighborhoods along the U.S. 40 corridor.

A small, diverse coalition gathered yesterday in Baltimore's rusty, industrial underbelly for a "Toxic Tour" of the plants and smokestacks that residents say are making the Brooklyn area unhealthy.The tour's main focus was a medical waste incinerator at Hawkins Point owned by Phoenix Services Inc., on the southern edge of Baltimore near the Anne Arundel County line. But the 40 or so participants were quick to point out that the incinerator is one of many industrial facilities in the area.

TALK ABOUT YOUR multi-purpose center. Across Route 140 from the Reese and Community Volunteer Fire Company, east of Westminster, is Carroll County's Northern Landfill.But that, as the entrance sign informs you, is only one of the functions of this 220-acre spread.It is also the Recycling Center.And the Hap Baker Firearms Facility.Some places may build golf courses or parks on landfills. In Carroll County, the need is for a public firing range.Recycling here means reuse. At the Swap Shop shed, you might find an old TV, a serviceable skateboard, castoff toilets, an assortment of split-seam recliners.

Carroll County missed a deadline last week to provide a building where county trash will await transfer to an incinerator, but the state agency that set the deadline isn't cutting off the trash flow.The Maryland Department of the Environment will allow the county to continue until Sept. 30 to place trash atop the landfill near Reese until it can be trucked to a York, Pa., incinerator.In May 1997, the county signed a five-year contract with Waste Management Inc. of Oak Brook, Ill., for it to transport Carroll's refuse to the incinerator.

After battling for more than a decade against businessman Willard J. Hackerman, opponents of his Pulaski Highway incinerator have dealt the operation a blow that could keep it out of business for good.The Maryland Senate gave final approval yesterday to a bill banning the reopening of closed incinerators or construction of new ones within a mile of a school -- a measure aimed specifically at the Hackerman incinerator, which shut down two years ago and is near about a half-dozen schools.Senators voted 35-9 to send the legislation to the governor, who is expected to sign it into law.Lawmakers had propose a similar measure last year, but failed to get it through the General Assembly.

A federal judge dismissed this week a company's lawsuit that had charged the city with violating its rights by not permitting construction of a new Pulaski Highway Incinerator.U.S. District Judge Frederic N. Smalkin said the three-year statute of limitations for filing suit had expired for New Pulaski Co."We're grateful that the court dismissed the case," said City Solicitor Otho Thompson. "We hope this is the end of this."New Pulaski, headed by Willard J. Hackerman, had sought $167 million in damages from the city, Thompson said.

A proposed trash incinerator and a planned natural gas plant threaten to encroach on two Civil War battlefield sites in Western Maryland, a preservation group warned yesterday. The Washington-based Civil War Preservation Trust said recent developments have put the Monocacy National Battlefield near Frederick and South Mountain near Middletown on its list of the nation's most endangered battlefields from that war. "In town after town, the irreplaceable battlefields that define those communities are being marred forever," said O. James Lighthizer, the trust's president.

At first glance, it seems like a good idea. Instead of building landfills and burying millions of tons of trash, Frederick and Carroll are considering construction of a waste-to-energy plant. Advocates say the plant would reduce by 90 percent the volume of trash the two counties would have to dispose of and generate enough electricity to power 1,000 homes annually. But there are lots of reasons why this project should not be built. For one, the only plant site under consideration is in an industrial park on the edge of the Monocacy National Battlefield south of Frederick.

Accusing the state of failing to control industrial air pollution, environmental groups went to court yesterday to force the Maryland Department of the Environment to set new emission limits for a Baltimore trash incinerator. The groups also threatened to sue Atlanta-based Mirant for allegedly spewing pollutants from one of its power plants in suburban Washington. The plant has been operating for years without a permit. Activists said the actions were prompted by their frustration with the O'Malley administration for foot-dragging in dealing with pollution violations at some of the state's largest factories and power plants.

Army withdraws Ft. Meade sewage incinerator plan Facing a groundswell of opposition, Army officials announced last night that they are withdrawing plans to build a sewage sludge incinerator at Fort Meade. "It's Fort Meade's intention to terminate the project because it no longer makes good business sense," said Clyde Reynolds, public works director at the Army post. Fort Meade issued a news release stating its intention at a public hearing on the project held by the Maryland Department of the Environment.

Fort Meade is proposing to build a sewage sludge incinerator, a prospect that has drawn outrage among western Anne Arundel County civic leaders and criticism from the county's top health official about the potential environmental and health impacts. The Maryland Department of the Environment is holding a public hearing tonight in Odenton to discuss plans by a Tennessee contractor, Ameresco Federal Solutions, to build the incinerator near the Army post's sewage plant adjacent to the intersection of Routes 32 and 198. The incinerator would run 24 hours a day on weekdays, disposing of hundreds of tons of sewage a year more cheaply than by trucking the waste away, county and Fort Meade officials said.

Fort Meade is proposing to build a sewage sludge incinerator, a prospect that has drawn outrage among western Anne Arundel County civic leaders and criticism from the county's top health official about the potential environmental and health impacts. The Maryland Department of the Environment is holding a public hearing tonight in Odenton to discuss plans by a Tennessee contractor, Ameresco Federal Solutions, to build the incinerator near the Army post's sewage plant adjacent to the intersection of Routes 32 and 198. The incinerator would run 24 hours a day on weekdays, disposing of hundreds of tons of sewage a year more cheaply than by trucking the waste away, county and Fort Meade officials said.

Occupation: Developer and founder of Himmelrich Associates Inc., a 19-year-old Baltimore real estate firm that specializes in renovating decaying industrial properties for offices and retail. In the news: Himmelrich recently bought the former Phoenix Services Inc. incinerator, now called Curtis Bay Energy, one of the nation's largest medical waste-burning plants. Lawmakers and environmentalists wanted it shut down because it broke state air pollution limits more than 400 times over the past two years.

A Baltimore developer known for breathing new life into crumbling architectural landmarks has purchased a run-down medical waste incinerator with a history of air pollution violations. Samuel K. Himmelrich Jr. says he has installed a $200,000 pollution filtration system at the Phoenix Services incinerator in Curtis Bay that he hopes will remove more than 90 percent of its mercury air pollution, which can cause brain damage in infants. And he said he plans to invest as much as $4 million over three years to fix up the decaying plant.

A medical waste incinerator near Baltimore's industrial waterfront has violated limits for mercury, soot and other air pollutants more than 400 times over the past two years, prompting three state legislators and a city councilman to demand that the state shut it down. The Phoenix Services Inc. incinerator on Hawkins Point Road near Curtis Bay is responsible for about 5 percent of the mercury pollution from the state's smokestacks and contaminating fish in the Chesapeake Bay and other waterways, according to a study by the Maryland Public Interest Research Group, an environmental advocacy organization.

Flaws discovered in Aberdeen Proving Ground's chemical agent destruction plant have pushed the project at least six months behind schedule and created work delays costing about $200,000 a day. Among the problems: false alarms, overheating equipment and a slow pace in cleansing containers that held the mustard agent. But military officials and the contractors hired for the project remain optimistic about the plant, which is the Army's first to destroy agent without using an incinerator.