MDE

The Maryland Department of the Environment will hold a public information meeting next week on the newly designed discharge system at Francis Scott Key High School's idle sewage treatment plant.The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. Dec. 16 in the auditorium of the high school, 3825 Bark Hill Road, Uniontown.The county has applied for a permit from MDE to release an average 17,000 gallons of treated wastewater a day to wetlands bordering a tributary of Wolfpit Branch, about a half-mile south of the high school.

Tyson Foods Inc. has notified the Maryland Department of the Environment that it has stopped spreading sludge from a chicken processing plant on an Eastern Shore farm, but the agency is still investigating possible violations of state water pollution laws, an MDE spokesman said.In April, neighbors complained to the state that the company was spreading large amounts of the sludge -- made up of wastewater, ground-up chicken parts and manure -- on the 105-acre farm near Berlin.Three MDE inspections confirmed that "sludge was being over-applied," contaminating ground water and causing other problems, according to an April 30 letter from MDE officials to the company.

An article in yesterday's Maryland section incorrectly reported the total fine that the state is seeking from Tyson Foods Inc. in a lawsuit over alleged improper disposal of chicken waste. The amount is $5.37 million.The Sun regrets the error.SNOW HILL -- Charging the nation's largest poultry producer with improperly dumping nearly 26,000 tons of sludge, state environmental officials went to court yesterday in an attempt to force Tyson Foods Inc. to pay nearly $536,000 in water pollution fines.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation has asked that state officials enforce environmental laws against Tyson Foods Inc. after the environmental group's recent discoveries that the nation's largest poultry producer has been dumping thousands of gallons of chicken waste daily on an Eastern Shore field.In a letter sent to Maryland Department of Environment officials Friday, the foundation urged MDE to take immediate action against the poultry giant for disposing of chicken remains on its 105-acre farm field near Berlin.

Warning that a six-month drought could lead to "severe" water supply problems soon, the Maryland Department of the Environmental is asking Marylanders to conserve water.Streams, rivers, reservoirs and ground water are at below-normal levels across the state because of rainfall deficits over the past six months, MDE officials said. South-central Maryland has been hit hardest, with more than a foot less rain than normal. The Eastern Shore has seen a 10-inch deficit, while rainfall in Western Maryland has averaged 6 inches below normal during that period.

The state of Maryland yesterday accepted blame for gaps in the public's information about the dangerous compounds used by big chemical companies that ring South Baltimore's Wagner's Point.Officials of the Maryland Department of the Environment told a group that had planned to sue seven big South Baltimore chemical companies that the state had misplaced records on chemicals used by five of the seven companies. MDE also failed to notice that two companies did not notify the state about some of the hazardous chemicals they used, but those companies have now done so, MDE officials said.

Responding to a chemical accident last month, the Maryland Department of the Environment has ordered FMC Corp.'s south city plant to stop producing one of its herbicides and to take several steps to prevent future spills.MDE's order, delivered to the company in a letter dated June 19, suggests that FMC could be fined as much as $75,000, but does not make clear under what circumstances such a penalty would be imposed.In the May 15 spill, an incorrectly calibrated flow meter heated an herbicide mixture to 350 degrees, creating so much pressure that the mixture spewed from a broken expansion joint and two vents, FMC officials said.

The state Department of the Environment plans to test for naturally occurring radium in wells in the Magothy and Patapsco rivers' aquifers in parts of Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Cecil, Harford, Kent, Queen Anne's and Prince George's counties.The study was prompted by the discovery of elevated levels of radium in wells in the northern and western sections of Anne Arundel.Naturally occurring radium in water does not pose an immediate health problem and can be removed by water treatment. However, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency warns of small, long-term health risks from drinking water with a radium level above EPA standards.

In the wake of a chemical spill at Wagner's Point last week, a state lawmaker is calling on the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) and the Baltimore Fire Department to review the way they handle hazardous-waste emergencies.Del. Timothy D. Murphy, a Democrat who represents the neighborhood, said yesterday that he does not know why authorities did not sound a warning system that alerts residents to tune into an emergency radio channel for information.Murphy said the residents were upset that little information was available to them about last week's spill of a liquid plant killer at LTC FMC Agricultural Products Chemicals, sending a gas plume into the air."

Despite neighbors' objections, the state Department of the Environment has issued a permit to allow school officials to discharge treated septic waste into a local stream.The permit allows the school system to discharge up to 17,000 gallons of treated effluent daily from Francis Scott Key High School into an unnamed tributary of Little Pipe Creek.Replacement of the inadequate 40-year-old septic system is part of a $16.3 million expansion and renovation of the high school, which began in the fall.

Soccer match an amazing spectacle My husband and I attended the World Football Challenge between Chelsea FC and AC Milan at M&T Bank Stadium. As the game began, a young boy about 9 or 10 years old, who was sitting behind us, said in a voice filled with awe and amazement, "I can't believe I'm seeing this." I smiled to myself because in that simple sentence he summed up the emotions of all 71,203 of us in the stadium that night. I hope that this unprecedented fan attendance will continue to bring this caliber of football to our area.

The state has agreed to make builders do more to keep soil from washing off construction sites when it rains, settling a legal challenge contending that Maryland isn't doing enough to curb a growing source of pollution fouling streams and the Chesapeake Bay. Under the settlement, the Maryland Department of the Environment pledges to update within the next year its requirements for controlling erosion and sediment runoff from building sites. The department also agrees to give closer scrutiny to larger construction projects, requiring individual permits for any that clear more than 150 acres.

Our Chesapeake Bay is suffering "death by a thousand cuts." The next cut may be a small tidal pond off the Severn River. Fox Creek has a narrow shoal inlet that makes it a unique environment as a fish hatchery. Healthy beds of subaquatic vegetation thrive at the mouth of the creek. But in 2004, an association of waterfront landowners applied to dredge through those beds at the inlet to open a channel for large boats. In August 2007, the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) recommended denial of the application, stating, among its findings, that "historic use [by boats]

Gov. Martin O'Malley's call for state agencies to identify 5 percent of their budgets that might be cut would seem to be a prudent exercise in the face of so much economic uncertainty. But there's at least one agency where officials would be wise to tread lightly. The Maryland Department of the Environment has been slowly chipping away at a different kind of deficit - a chronic lack of resources to adequately enforce anti-pollution laws. It's a problem that's worsened over much of the last decade and runs completely counter to recent efforts to expand the agency's mission to address such issues as climate change and poultry farm runoff.

Let county collect from the polluters The Sun's article about Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold's reaction to the veto of legislation that would have required the Maryland Department of the Environment to reimburse Anne Arundel County for its costs for residential water well sampling near the BBSS fly ash disposal site may mislead readers ("O'Malley veto assailed," May 23). In this case, MDE took the third-largest enforcement action in its history by requiring BBSS to pay to connect the homes whose water was affected by the pollution to a permanent public water supply, mandating remediation of groundwater contamination, stopping fly ash disposal until the disposal site is upgraded to meet modern landfill standards and making the polluters pay a $1 million penalty.

The Anne Arundel Medical Center, in Annapolis, has been fined $20,000 by the Maryland Department of the Environment after reporting two separate incidents in which cancer patients received the wrong doses of radiation. The second mishap occurred in November, months after the hospital was ordered to take corrective action after a similar incident in May, MDE officials said. The fine was the maximum allowed for two such incidents, according to Roland Fletcher, the MDE's program manager for radiological health.

A leak in Deep Creek Dam in Garrett County prompted an alert to area residents, Maryland Department of the Environment officials reported. There was no immediate threat of the dam failing, according to state officials. "MDE has sent staff from our compliance program to investigate the leak," MDE Secretary Shari T. Wilson said in a statement. "We will continue to monitor the situation as long as necessary to ensure the safety of Maryland residents living in the vicinity." The leak is in the penstock, which takes water from Deep Creek Lake to the dam's powerhouse.

State environmental officials have ordered the company that operates the steel plant at Sparrows Point to take steps to contain an industrial grit that has been raining on southeastern Baltimore County neighborhoods. Responding to complaints about the airborne steel-making byproduct known as kish, the Maryland Department of the Environment found International Steel Group-Mittal Steel N.V. in violation of air emissions regulations. The first step ordered by environmental officials would require the company to repair holes in a building that is to contain the material but was damaged by an explosion last summer.

The discovery of a toxic industrial solvent in wells in a Harford County subdivision has prompted officials to put together a $2.2 million plan to connect the entire 84-home community to a public water supply. The plan, however, has divided residents - some of whom oppose the cost of adding their homes to the public system. The Maryland Department of the Environment began testing wells in the Glenn Heights community near Havre de Grace two years ago, when a U.S. 40 shopping center nearby was razed and traces of trichloroethylene, a volatile organic compound often used as a cleaning solvent, were detected in the soil.

Contradicting statements made by a Maryland Department of the Environment official last week, Anne Arundel County's health officer forcefully said the agency has not consulted with her department on plans to more strictly enforce coal-ash disposal. In the latest sign of frustration among county officials that the state has shut them out of its efforts to clamp down on a Gambrills dumping site, Frances B. Phillips said Friday she learned that the MDE had formed an internal panel to weigh new rules on coal ash from Constellation Energy Group.