Leak

A Harford County judge heard arguments Monday on whether a lawsuit over a vapor leak at an Exxon gas station in Fallston should proceed as a class-action case. The Peter G. Angelos law firm filed the lawsuit as a class action on behalf of about 150 families and businesses whose wells were contaminated by the gasoline additive MTBE. Lawyers for Exxon Mobil Corp. and the operator of the station contended that the plaintiffs should be required to file individual lawsuits. In arguing for class-action status, plaintiffs' lawyers said their clients shared a common interest in the leak, which residents learned about in 2004.

Player of the yearRaytron Leak, EdmondsonLeak, a senior running back, rushed for 1,514 yards and 17 touchdowns and had 1,460 receiving yards and 15 touchdowns. He also handled punting and kicking duties, averaging 43 yards per punt and launching all but 10 of his kickoffs out of the end zone. As a linebacker, Leak, 6 feet 1 and 230 pounds, had eight sacks, recovered two fumbles and returned three of nine interceptions for scores. Leak returned three punts for touchdowns and one kickoff for another.

Raytron Leak can't walk the halls of Edmondson High without being stopped or recognized. Teachers and classmates congratulate him on the Redskins' success.Edmondson, ranked No. 2, is the only area team headed to the state football championships, and Leak is a 6-foot-2, 230-pound Division I prospect."This is exciting. This is what high schools want. This is what high school should be all about," Leak said. "We're fortunate to have the talent and motivation from Coach [Pete] Pompey," Leak said.

A LOT of readers have written asking about leaky basements in the aftermath of Hurricane Floyd.The most frequently asked questions have been: What do you do if the leak is behind a wall, and how do you find a reputable contractor to repair the problem?A certain acquaintance we know, whom we'll call simply "Bob," has the first problem. It seems, when Ron called for details, that Bob has been living in his house since 1991, and his basement never leaked until he had it finished recently.Bob first noticed the problem when he was watering his lawn last spring.

All-Metro Offensive Player of the Year Raytron Leak of Edmondson and University of Maryland-bound defensive end C. J. Feldheim of Hereford were among 13 area players named to the consensus All-State football team by the Associated Press.Leak led The Sun's No. 2-ranked Redskins (12-1) to a 2A state-title game runner-up finish. He has full scholarship offers from Michigan, Nebraska, Virginia, Boston College and Syracuse.Feldheim, a two-time All-Metro pick who led the Bulls to a four-year, 45-4 record, has accepted a full football scholarship to play for the Terps.

A season of firsts continued for Edmondson's No. 5 football team as two players for the Redskins, who are making their initial Class 2A state playoff appearance, received their first national rankings.Raytron Leak was rated 30th among America's top 100 Division I running back prospects by Rivals100, and Eddie Colbert, No. 33 among quarterbacks. Leak's rating is the highest of any Maryland running back by this recruiting service.The two will lead Edmondson (11-0) against sixth-ranked Howard (10-1)

The game was scoreless with 15 seconds left in the first half. Raytron Leak's Edmondson squad faced fourth-and-30. His hamstring was killing him. So was the Walbrook defense.Yet, even on one of his worst days, Leak showed why so many Division I programs are after him, as his 70-yard score on a pass from Eddie Colbert -- Colbert's 10th of the year -- stood up for a 6-0 win and career victory No. 175 for 25th-year coach Pete Pompey yesterday."I was supposed to sprint straight out, but Eddie got hit as he was throwing the ball, and the ball was kind of thrown under," said Leak, a 6-foot, 230-pounder with 4.5-second speed in the 40-yard dash.

The offensePlayer of the YearRaytron Leak, Edmondson, Sr., RB/K: It sounds cliche, but Leak did it all. He rushed for 1,514 yards and 17 touchdowns and caught 15 passes for scores that totaled 1,460 yards. Entering the playoffs, he had averaged 43 yards per punt, with a long of 68 yards vs. Walbrook, and had booted all but 10 of his kickoffs out of the end zone. He returned three of nine interceptions for scores, three punts for touchdowns and one kickoff for another. Playing with a hamstring pull, Leak caught a 72-yard touchdown pass to beat Walbrook, 6-0. All in all, Leak, a 6-foot, 230-pounder who runs a 4.5-second 40-yard dash, accounted for 39 touchdowns.

All-Metro football Offensive Player of the Year Raytron Leak of Edmondson, whose 17 rushing touchdowns and 15 receiving scores helped the Redskins to a 12-1 record and a state Class 2A title-game trip, has a scheduled recruiting visit today with Nebraska.The Cornhuskers are one of the eight scholarship offers Leak is considering.Others interested in him include Michigan, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, Boston College and Maryland.

At least three of 13 people exposed to Freon at Giant Food's main warehouse in Landover were in critical condition last night with serious respiratory problems, according to an emergency room doctor at Prince George's Hospital Center.Dr. Meera Kanhouwa said the victims were admitted after being exposed to the leaking chemical at Giant's ice-making warehouse at 6400 Sheriff Road.Among the injured were five Prince George's County firefighters, who responded to the warehouse after the 8: 20 p.m. incident.

The problem:: A hole near an Owings Mills home remained unfilled for more than a year after a water leak. The back story:: Mel Gofstein knows temptation when he sees it. About a year ago, Baltimore public works staff repaired a leak in the roadway near his home in the 4800 block of Buxton Circle. Baltimore County workers came out to repair the damaged road afterward. But they failed to fix a hole near the curb that the public works crew had dug to get to a water meter, Gofstein said. That threatened a pole supporting a Verizon FiOS box, which was installed shortly before the leak.

In what they called "an abundance of caution," the owners of a Northeast Baltimore apartment building in which nine people were sickened by a carbon monoxide leak said Monday that they would replace water heaters in four of the complex's 803 units. Sawyer Realty Holdings LLC issued a statement saying the Sunday leak at the Dutch Village Townhomes appeared to have come from a faulty water heater in a vacant unit. The carbon-monoxide detector in that unit went off and alerted tenants in a neighboring apartment.

A Harford County judge heard arguments Monday on whether a lawsuit over a vapor leak at an Exxon gas station in Fallston should proceed as a class-action case. The Peter G. Angelos law firm filed the lawsuit as a class action on behalf of about 150 families and businesses whose wells were contaminated by the gasoline additive MTBE. Lawyers for Exxon Mobil Corp. and the operator of the station contended that the plaintiffs should be required to file individual lawsuits. In arguing for class-action status, plaintiffs' lawyers said their clients shared a common interest in the leak, which residents learned about in 2004.

After a 19-week trial, a lawsuit brought against Exxon Mobil Corp. by 300 Jacksonville residents went to the jury yesterday. At stake are potential compensatory and punitive damages worth "several billion dollars," said plaintiffs' attorney Stephen L. Snyder, whose team received a standing ovation from the crowded courtroom after the jury had filed out. Snyder had argued that the 26,000 gallons of unleaded gasoline that seeped into the groundwater from...

Jacksonville residents are justifiably distressed about a 26,000-gallon gasoline leak that seeped into the groundwater supplying area wells, but their fears about lingering contamination and possible health risks are unsubstantiated, a defense attorney representing Exxon Mobil Corp. said yesterday during his closing arguments in Baltimore County Circuit Court. The 300 or so plaintiffs suing the oil company contend that their physical and emotional health were damaged, along with property values, because of the spill three years ago at an Exxon service station in Jacksonville.

At the beginning of a closing statement that he predicted would last the better part of two days, a lawyer representing 300 plaintiffs who are suing ExxonMobil Corp. said yesterday in Baltimore County Circuit Court that their community was "forever changed" by a huge gasoline leak three years ago. The spill, at a service station in Jacksonville, dumped more than 26,000 gallons of regular unleaded gasoline into the groundwater that supplied the area's wells. The plaintiffs, who are seeking at least $1 billion from the oil giant, claim that their physical and emotional health had been damaged and their property values have been ruined.

The e-mail message was written in February 2007, a year after an underground leak at an Exxon gas station in northern Baltimore County fouled wells and hammered property values. After cleanup efforts are completed, "no one will remember Phoenix," the message said, referring to the address of the Jacksonville area where the spill occurred. "Just another notch in the tree of life." Written by an Exxon Mobil Corp. project manager to a colleague, the text was enlarged and projected onto a screen in a Towson courtroom yesterday by Stephen L. Snyder, a lawyer for 309 residents who are suing the oil company for at least $1 billion in Baltimore County Circuit Court.

A maintenance supervisor for Exxon Mobil Corp. said yesterday in Baltimore County Circuit Court that he did not know how to operate a device that should have prevented a massive gasoline leak three years ago at a service station in Jacksonville. The underground leak dumped more than 26,000 gallons of regular unleaded gasoline into the groundwater that supplied the area's wells and ruined property values for some 300 homeowners, who are seeking at least $1 billion from the oil giant. The trial began in October, and the plaintiffs are still presenting their case to the jury.

Eleven people were hospitalized after they suffered carbon monoxide poisoning at a Columbia hotel last night, Howard County fire authorities said. The fire department was called to the Sheraton hotel near The Mall in Columbia around 6:15 p.m. for a carbon monoxide leak, fire spokeswoman Anna Hoffman said. Guests, including many parents and children visiting for a youth hockey tournament, were evacuated from the 10-story hotel and 26 people were found to have suffered from mild carbon monoxide poisoning, Hoffman said.

A throng of plaintiffs packed a Towson courtroom yesterday, overflowing into a hallway, to hear the lawyer they had hired make the case that their neighborhood was ruined and their health endangered by the leak from a gas station of thousands of gallons of gasoline. "This is a leak that should not have happened," Stephen L. Snyder, whose firm is representing 300 residents of Jacksonville, said in Baltimore County Circuit Court during opening statements in a trial in which the plaintiffs are collectively seeking $1 billion from Exxon Mobil Corp.