Landfill

Michael Maszczenski learned Friday he can drink his water again.But, he wonders, for how long? Especially with 1,200 tons of trash being dumped every day at the Millersville Landfill next door.Landfill officials spent millions of dollars this summer constructing a new environmentally safe disposal area and bringing the Burns Crossing Road facility into compliance with state law.The county began diverting all the trash entering the 567-acre site into a plastic-lined cell Wednesday, said Faye Scheibe, a spokeswoman for the county Department of Utilities.

Stung by the low rates charged at private, out-of-state landfills, Anne Arundel County faces a $1.6 million deficit at its landfill in Millersville.To erase the deficit without increasing homeowner fees, County Executive John G. Gary wants to lower temporarily the rate charged to certain commercial haulers who can guarantee the ** county large volumes and revenues.LTC However, members of the County Council -- who are to vote on the plan tomorrow night -- have expressed reservations.Late last week, administration officials still were trying to line up the five votes needed to pass the "emergency legislation."

Neighbors of the toxic dump site at Carrs Mill Landfill in Woodbine last night told County Executive Charles I. Ecker that more needs to be done to protect them from chemicals that have polluted a local stream and underground aquifers.Tests of residential wells need to be done more often, more accurately, and air near neighboring homes should be monitored, the residents said at a meeting at which they were brought up to date on cleanup efforts at the landfill.Cleanup workers have unearthed at least 462 55-gallon drums on the site.

Residents near the closed New Cut Road Landfill in Ellicott City have, for the most part, remained quiet about their contaminant-leaking neighbor.That may change today during a 7:30 p.m. meeting at Worthington Elementary School about the extent of pollution emanating from the facility and plans to clean it up.After trying to decipher a 5-inch-thick report on the landfill, which accepted trash from 1947 until 1981, neighbors -- several of whom have contaminated...

State officials approved a permit yesterday for a new $7 million landfill in Allegany County -- the only public landfill to be operated by a private corporation in the state -- paving the way for out-of-state trash to be trucked into Maryland.Chambers Development Inc. of Pittsburgh, a waste disposal firm that has taken over municipal waste services along the East Coast, will build and operate the county's new landfill -- under a 1987 agreement with Allegany County officials -- in Vale Summit, about two miles north of Frostburg.

The County Commissioners yesterday raised tipping fees at the Hoods Mill Landfill, off Hoods Mill Road near the Howard County border.Effective July 1, tipping fees will be $6 for cars, $7 for sport utility vehicles and $10 for pick-up trucks.Cars are now charged $4 and pick-up trucks are charged $6. The county does not have a separate charge for sport utility vehicles.J. Michael Evans, director of the county's Department of Public Works, said the fee increase is needed to offset the landfill's $37,000 deficit.

An Anne Arundel County man who says his land has been poisoned by Browning-Ferris Industries' leaking hazardous waste landfill on Solley Road is contesting a decision by state regulators to give the waste hauler permission to reseal part of the site."

The Maryland Department of the Environment is studying an old private landfill near Westminster to determine whether to recommend it for the federal Superfund cleanup list.Carroll's commissioners are thinking about cleaning up the old Kate Wagner landfill before the Environmental Protection Agency might order them to do it. The commissioners have asked the staff to evaluate whether a voluntary cleanup would cost less than one done under federal supervision."We have kept in the backs of our minds" the chance that the old landfill could become a Superfund site, said Commissioner Elmer Lippy.

Experts told Woodbine residents Wednesday night that contaminants from the Carrs Mill Landfill don't appear to be migrating across a stream to neighboring homes but that they can't be certain.James W. Mercer, president and principal hydrogeologist for Virginia-based GeoTrans Inc., told about 15 residents at Glenwood Middle School that the contaminants are draining into Cattail Creek.His company conducted a $139,000 study of contamination at the landfill and how to clean it up.Responding to questions about possible migration of the chemicals through ground water under the creek, he said his conclusion is supported by water samples collected from wells on the eastern, or landfill side of the creek, and from contaminants found in the creek itself.