Methane

No matter how bad the weather gets in Baltimore, it's an evening in Tahiti compared with Titan, Saturn's largest moon. A paper in the journal Science last week described a global overcast of frozen methane clouds, floating atop an atmosphere of mostly nitrogen. Clouds of ethane (a component of natural gas) drift near the poles. Mornings bring a drizzle of liquid methane off methane oceans and onto the foothills of the moon's main continent, Xanadu. The day's high? A chilly minus-297 Fahrenheit.

In a deal that could benefit Baltimore's air quality and its bottom line, city officials said yesterday that they will soon capture methane gas from a landfill and sell it to the Coast Guard as a source of energy. The 16,000 tons of methane generated by the Quarantine Road Landfill annually will be pumped to the Coast Guard Yard, which will use the gas to light and heat its 112-acre facility on Hawkins Point Road in Curtis Bay - reducing its reliance on traditional energy sources. Several local governments across the country and in Maryland - including Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties - are looking at ways not only to reuse methane, which is a greenhouse gas, but also to turn what gas they collect into a revenue source.

The plateau just north of Westminster seems like the kind of site a real estate broker would die for -- panoramic views of surrounding trees and valleys, a stream nearby and a single country lane of traffic.If it weren't for the smell of that darned gas.The hill, a few hundred yards southwest of Hashawha Environmental Center, is the peak of an 88-acre mountain of garbage formed when Carroll County closed one of its landfills and sodded it over with grass.Last week, a group of children and parents hiked up the hill to get a close look at John Owings Landfill in the first public tour of the site since it closed in 1988.

Six months after methane gas was discovered in a housing subdivision in Elkridge, a lawyer for 17 Calvert Ridge families said yesterday that Howard County test results indicate high levels of lead in the neighborhood.Responding to data from soil samples taken by the county, attorney Pamela Marks of Baltimore, said at a news conference that enough lead is present to cause her clients "adverse human health effects.""It is disturbing that high levels of lead are in this neighborhood," Marks said.

When Donald and Kathleen Angeletti decided two years ago to buy a new home, the recently built Calvert Ridge subdivision in Elkridge seemed the ideal place.Situated north of Route 100 between Montgomery Road and Interstate 95, the $250,000 to $300,000 homes were elaborately equipped and had neatly manicured lawns. It was exactly where the couple wanted to raise their three children: Christina, 13, Steven, 12, and James, 10."This was going to be our final house, at least until the kids were all grown up," said Donald Angeletti, 41, who, with his wife, Kathy, 39, saved for years to buy their dream home.

Completion of a new Northern District police station is running at least seven months late because of contaminated soil on the site, where tests have found methane, benzene and other chemicals that can be hazardous in large amounts.The $4.3 million project, due to be done last month, is now scheduled to open in September, said Department of Public Works Director George G. Balog, who appears to be at odds with Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. over the source of at least part of the contamination.

YONKERS, N.Y. -- Sewage treatment plants purify water, but they also foul the air with methane and sulfur and nitrogen oxides, which smell bad and contribute to smog and global warming.Now, a sewage plant here is turning its unwanted gas into electricity and heat. The only byproduct, officials say, is hot water.The new fuel-cell system, the first for a sewage plant in North America, has proved to be effective after a year of operation, officials from the New York Power Authority said. The system generates 200 kilowatts of electricity, enough to supply 60 typical homes, the officials said.

AS FAR AS some Howard countians are concerned, the Maryland General Assembly really begins in earnest after the confetti falls on the session's last night -- when the state announces awards for school construction.To accommodate one of the fastest growing enrollments in the state, Howard seeks $19 million for school projects, up from $13 million last year. A more realistic hope is about $15 million.Other than that, Howard's highlight in the legislative session was a $340,000 appropriation for an incubator facility for start-up small businesses in information-technology.

Seventeen families from the Calvert Ridge subdivision in Elkridge, where several homes were evacuated last year because of a methane gas buildup, filed a federal lawsuit yesterday against the neighborhood's builders and developers.Ryan Homes and the Brantly Development Group are the main defendants named in the suit, which seeks $75 million in damages for lost wages, medical care, pain and suffering, and loss of the reasonable use of property.Robert Coursey, a spokesman for Ryan Homes, did not return calls to his office and car phone yesterday.

Three families were forced to leave their homes in the Elkridge area yesterday after Howard County fire officials discovered explosive levels of methane in the houses.The gas readings were so high that a pilot light for a water heater or stove could have caused an explosion in the houses, which are in the 7000 block of Calvert Drive, said Capt. Chris Shimer of Howard County Fire and Rescue Services.The methane was detected after a resident smelled gas and called Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.BGE found readings of potentially explosive levels of methane and called 911 about 3: 15 p.m.About 30 houses were tested for methane and all but three were found safe, Shimer said.

Wiretaps limited only inside U.S., court rules WASHINGTON: The government does not need a search warrant when it taps the phones or checks the e-mails of suspected terrorists who are outside the U.S., even if Americans might be overheard on these calls, a special intelligence court ruled in an opinion released yesterday. The decision confirms what Bush administration officials and some legal experts have long said: While the Constitution protects privacy rights of Americans against "unreasonable searches and seizures," this principle does not bar U.S. spy agencies from conducting surveillance aimed at foreign targets abroad.

Pushing the Hubble Space Telescope to its limits, astronomers say they have made the first discovery of the organic molecule methane in the atmosphere of a planet circling a sun-like star. Although methane can be generated by cows and rotting garbage, scientists say there's little chance that they've stumbled on signs of life on the planet, about 63 light-years from Earth. The Jupiter-size world's atmosphere sizzles at 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit. But their apparent success in detecting the gas so far away gives them confidence that they'll be able to find it again someday on a smaller, cooler planet circling a different star.

Fort Meade will pump methane gas from an Anne Arundel County landfill to generate electricity at the growing Army post under a tentative deal announced yesterday, three months after the talks appeared to have collapsed. The terms of the agreement, which a county spokeswoman characterized as in the "verbal preliminary stages," call for Fort Meade to buy the methane gas from the Millersville landfill. The fort and its contractors will foot the bill for the design and construction of a five-mile pipeline and other infrastructure needed for the collection and use of the methane gas. "This is a win-win partnership for all the parties concerned," Col. Kenneth O McCreedy, the post commander, said in a statement.

In a deal that could benefit Baltimore's air quality and its bottom line, city officials said yesterday that they will soon capture methane gas from a landfill and sell it to the Coast Guard as a source of energy. The 16,000 tons of methane generated by the Quarantine Road Landfill annually will be pumped to the Coast Guard Yard, which will use the gas to light and heat its 112-acre facility on Hawkins Point Road in Curtis Bay - reducing its reliance on traditional energy sources. Several local governments across the country and in Maryland - including Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties - are looking at ways not only to reuse methane, which is a greenhouse gas, but also to turn what gas they collect into a revenue source.

Officials from Anne Arundel County and Fort Meade say discussions about using methane gas from the Millersville Landfill as a power source for the Army post have reached an impasse, nearly 13 months after they announced a partnership to help provide a new energy source to serve a huge expansion there. Col. Kenneth O. McCreedy, Fort Meade's commander, confirmed differences regarding the "economics" of building a five-mile, $9 million pipeline and directing natural gas from the landfill to the post.

No matter how bad the weather gets in Baltimore, it's an evening in Tahiti compared with Titan, Saturn's largest moon. A paper in the journal Science last week described a global overcast of frozen methane clouds, floating atop an atmosphere of mostly nitrogen. Clouds of ethane (a component of natural gas) drift near the poles. Mornings bring a drizzle of liquid methane off methane oceans and onto the foothills of the moon's main continent, Xanadu. The day's high? A chilly minus-297 Fahrenheit.

Maryland: Earnings Aegon net income increases 19% Dutch insurer Aegon NV, which runs its U.S. operations from Baltimore, said fourth-quarter profit rose 19 percent, boosted by higher sales of life insurance and pensions in the Americas and Britain. The company said net income climbed to $1.1 billion from a year earlier. Chief Executive Officer Don Shepard said he expected the U.S. portion to continue to be the dominant part of Aegon's business. Energy Constellation buying methane areas Constellation Energy Partners, a limited liability company formed and majority owned by Constellation Energy Group, said yesterday it will acquire coal-bed methane properties in Kansas and Oklahoma for $115 million.

It's praised as a win-win deal for everyone: The U.S. Coast Guard gets a cheap supply of energy, cash-hungry Baltimore receives a total of $3 million, and tons of landfill gas laden with methane are prevented from leaking into the atmosphere. Under an agreement scheduled to be announced today, the Coast Guard will pay the city $200,000 annually for 15 years for the methane, which will come from the city's Quarantine Road Landfill, where it accumulates naturally as solid waste decays. The gas will be piped about a mile to the Coast Guard shipyard in Curtis Bay, where a methane-powered co-generation plant will generate electricity and produce enough steam to heat the shipyard during the winter.

Jessup Two inmates could face death penalty Anne Arundel County prosecutors will seek the death penalty for two prisoners charged with the July stabbing death of a correctional officer inside the Maryland House of Correction, the county state's attorney announced Friday. The decision was made after consulting with prosecutors, Maryland State Police investigators and the family of David McGuinn, the 42-year-old correctional officer who was slain the night of July 25. "The family is very supportive of the death penalty in this case," said State's Attorney Frank R. Weathersbee.

Anyone who's been to or even by a landfill knows it can have a certain aroma. Lately, though, some of Maryland's landfills have begun to smell like money. Businesses and local governments are teaming up to generate electricity or steam from the methane gas produced by decomposing garbage buried in landfills. The move is prompted by rising natural gas prices, federal tax breaks and recently enacted state requirements, but it also helps combat a major environmental problem - global climate change - by curbing releases of harmful "greenhouse" gases that trap heat in Earth's atmosphere.