Incinerator

The efforts of Anne Arundel Councilwoman Shirley Murphy and her supporters that resulted this spring in a countywide ban on incinerators were applauded yesterday in a public show of appreciation during a ceremony by environmental activists. The ban is "a statement by Anne Arundel County that the county does not consider incinerators a solution for waste disposal," said Andrew Fellows, Chesapeake program director with Clean Water Action, a national grass-roots organization. "It's probably the first incinerator ban in the state of Maryland, and possibly the first in the country," he said of the ban, enacted in late May. A small but appreciative crowd gathered at the event at Fort Smallwood and Fort Armistead roads, the Baltimore-Anne Arundel line, in support of Murphy, who proposed the incinerator ban and pushed it through the council, and Democratic Del. Mary M. Rosso, who supported her efforts.

Until other arrangements can be made, Baltimore-area animal shelters are settling for expensive incineration to dispose of pets that have been put to sleep. Carroll, Howard, Washington and Allegany counties will continue to send their animals to the incinerator at the Maryland Department of Agriculture's Animal Health Laboratory in Frederick. The agreement was scheduled to end in December, but the lab has agreed to accept the carcasses until the shelters are able to make other arrangements, said Roger Olson, Maryland's chief of animal health.

David J. Taylor, the employee of a medical-waste disposal company who was crushed in a machine at the firm's Curtis Bay incinerator Saturday, was described as a quiet man by neighbors who were just getting to know him in his new neighborhood. Taylor, 41, was pronounced dead at his workplace, Phoenix Services Inc., shortly after the incident, which occurred about 11:40 a.m. Saturday. He lived alone in the 200 block of Old Riverside Road in Baltimore. Next-door neighbors Nancy and George Couch said Taylor was still unpacking before he left for work Saturday.

Many of the animal-control agencies in the Baltimore metropolitan area have found temporary ways to dispose of dogs and cats after they've been put down. Several are searching for a long-term solution for disposal, however. Agencies in Howard, Carroll, Washington, Allegany and Montgomery counties will incinerate their animals at the Maryland Department of Agriculture Animal Health Laboratories through Dec. 31, the end of a six-month arrangement with the facilities. Baltimore City's animal control agency has turned to Biomedical Waste Services of Hanover, a medical-waste disposal company, to incinerate its animals for 90 days.

Many of the animal control agencies in the Baltimore metropolitan area have found temporary ways to dispose of dogs and cats after they've been put down. Several are searching for a long-term solution for disposal, however. Agencies in Howard, Carroll, Washington, Allegany and Montgomery counties will incinerate their animals at the Maryland Department of Agriculture Animal Health Laboratories through Dec. 31, the end of a six-month arrangement with the facilities. Baltimore City's animal control agency has turned to Biomedical Waste Services of Hanover, a medical-waste disposal company, to incinerate its animals for 90 days.

Construction magnate Willard J. Hackerman is seeking a court order to reopen the Pulaski Incinerator in East Baltimore, which he closed five years ago after a city moratorium and a prolonged battle with politicians and neighbors. Hackerman's suit in Baltimore County Circuit Court requests a court order to nullify a state law that effectively prohibits the 43-year-old incinerator from operating. The suit alleges that the 1997 law is discriminatory because it shut down only the Pulaski incinerator and allowed the state's other 104 incinerators to continue operating.

DENVER -- The Energy Department said yesterday it was abandoning a plan to build the country's first nuclear-waste incinerator in southern Idaho, a decision that was hailed by environmental groups that used considerable political and financial might to fight the plan. The decision was part of the settlement of a lawsuit the groups had filed against the department seeking to stop construction of the incinerator, or failing that, to collect $1 billion in damages if it began operating. The plaintiffs had been largely concerned that the wind might blow radioactive and toxic dust across western Wyoming.

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.

Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke has vetoed legislation that would have placed additional restrictions on the amount of medical waste allowed into a South Baltimore incinerator.The Baltimore City Council failed to override the mayor's veto Monday night, falling six votes shy of the 15 needed.Schmoke's veto ends a two-year battle over the boundaries for the Hawkins Point Medical Waste Incinerator. Last year, the council passed a law allowing the owners of the facility, Phoenix Services Inc., to expand their collection boundaries to a 250-mile radius.